Department of Painting
Painting
The Painting and Graphic Design Groups, as academic units of Ferdowsi University, were established in Mehr 1378 (September–October 1999) and, following a one-semester delay, officially commenced their activities in Mehr 1379 (September–October 2000). The groups began their academic activities with the collaboration of three faculty members: Hassan Razmkhah, Seyyed Ali Seyedani, and Akram Mahmoudi.
At the time, the educational and administrative facilities of the faculty were limited to a three-story building, with the third floor occupied by Payame Noor University. The ground floor comprised four hexagonal studios designated for theoretical courses, a large octagonal room for three-dimensional art workshops, and a symmetrical octagonal room that served as a kitchen. The second floor included two octagonal studios used for practical courses in drawing and oil painting, as well as an accounting office, an educational office, and a room designated for the faculty members of the Painting Group.
In the early years, Dr. Farhoosh served as Head of the Faculty, with Dr. Razavi as Deputy Head. After approximately one academic semester, the position of Deputy for Education was assigned to Hassan Razmkhah.
The faculty began its academic programs with two fields of study—Painting and Graphic Design—with an initial intake of 15 students in each program. At first, all basic courses for both programs were taught by faculty members of the Painting Group. After two semesters, faculty members specializing in Graphic Design also joined the academic staff. Arman Yaghoubpour was subsequently recruited to the Painting Group, while Morteza Lotfi was selected through an interview process to teach photography workshop courses for students in both programs.
At that time, the recruitment of art faculty members followed a distinctive process. After a public announcement was issued, a group of experienced professors from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran were invited to Neyshabur to conduct interviews. Talented and experienced graduates were then selected from among the candidates.
With regard to general printmaking courses, an additional room was constructed adjacent to the main building after the first semester, where printmaking instruction was provided by faculty members of the Painting Group. However, specialized screen-printing courses required a fully equipped workshop. Accordingly, in the second year, Professor Gholam-Ali Ganjineh was invited to establish a specialized printmaking facility. Having previously established printmaking workshops at numerous universities across Iran, Professor Ganjineh played a key role in setting up the screen-printing workshop. For a period of time, he travelled from Tehran to Neyshabur to teach screen-printing courses.
Today, the Painting Group has four faculty members. Arman Yaghoubpour holds the academic rank of Assistant Professor, while the other three are instructors and are in the final stages of defending their doctoral dissertations. The Painting Group currently has 111 undergraduate students. The Master’s program in Painting also began its activities in Mehr 1397 (September–October 2018) and currently has 17 students. At present, the department has three drawing studios, two painting studios, and three classrooms for theoretical courses. The photography and printmaking workshops are operated jointly for the various art groups.