Parviz Shapour

Parviz Shapour (February 23, 1924 – 2000) was an Iranian artist and man of letters known for his witticisms and for his brief and troubled marriage to poet Forough Farrokhzad. In 1952, at the age of 31, he began working with local newspapers after a career as the V.P. of Finance in Iran's Finance Ministry.[1][2] By 1958 his stories were published once a week in Tofiegh magazine.

Forough Farrokhzad and Parviz Shapour

In 1968 Shapour collaborated with Ahmad Shamlou, editor of the art magazine Khoosheh (cluster) Journal, and one of Iran's most celebrated poets.[2] Shamlou gave the name "Cari-kalamator", or word-caricature, to Shapour's writings. These short humorous sentences proved to be wildly popular with the Iranian public, and helped to make Shapour into one of Iran's cultural and literary leaders. Shapour's writings have been described as "cartoons expressed as words."[1]

His first book of writings and drawings was published in 1964, titled Cari-kalamator.[1] Shapour's designs and drawings were showcased in exhibitions at the Art Gallery in Persepolis in 1968 and 1970.[1]

Some samples of his cari-kalamator are:

• The absent minded compass draws ellipses.
• The decline swims in the water fall.
• I have a lifetime to die.
• The sunflower feels indecisive in cloudy days.
• The guillotine believes that the human head is excessive.
• The cat climbs the first half of the tree because of the dog and the rest because of the bird.
• With the same speed that the cat climbs up the tree, the tree climbs down the cat.