has opened his Circle Museum, featuring his eclectic range of artwork, to the public.
Bijan Mahmoodi of Berkshire County was born and raised in Iran. He left in 1978, before the Islamic revolution, to study and work in England. He later moved to the United States, where he became a citizen in 2001.
“You are free here, more free than anywhere else in the world,” Mahmoodi told The Berkshire Eagle.
The Iranian-born artist uses recycled materials to create his art, ranging from metal and marble sculptures to abstract paintings. Mahmoodi explained that he tries not to create the same style twice, instead, constantly creating new styles.
The Iranian-American artist learned metalwork by restoring old cars and working in a Brighton shipyard in England.
Mahmoodi’s museum is self-financed, with help from his family in Iran and two nieces who are doctors in the United States. He doesn’t charge admission, but he accepts donations. Even in winter when the gate is closed, he finds footsteps in the snow; as a neighbor observed, “In America they feel entitled to see the art!”
“I’m not out here really to make money,” he said. “You can put a smile on people’s faces. When they walk in, they all smile, which makes me happy.”
His house gallery collection includes about 100 paintings and some 300 sculptures. Mah-moodi, who has lived and worked on the property since 1987, has planted about 1,000 trees on the property; he’s planted 10,000 trees by the Caspian Sea in his native Iran.
Each winter Mahmoodi leaves New England for Seville, Spain.
Mahmoodi said he has painted since childhood; but he began sculpting because he wanted to create art that was tangible. “I wanted to do something more solid, touch it, feel it, see it outside in nature, mostly organic,” he said.
The sheer volume of his work has been described as almost overwhelming. Some of his work includes landscape sculptures, while others reflect deeper statements of conflict, sensuality, birth, death and greed. The material Mahmoodi uses often includes recycled industrial scrap.
Bill Latimer, a former newspaper editor from central Massachusetts, told The Berkshire Eagle, “I would love to have this in my yard. He’s taking this old industrial stuff and breathing life into it. I just fell in love with some of the pieces up here.”
Pittsfield therapist and watercolor landscape painter Kathryn Jensen told The Eagle, “All the juxtapositions of circles and discs with spirals and spheres, and how he’s connected those to rectangular forms and made them so kinetic-looking is amazing.”