Davood Koochaki

1939 to 2020, Iran

Davood Koochaki was born in Rasht, in north-eastern Iran. When he was 7 he was taken out of school to assist with the rice harvest. He later moved to Teheran in an attempt to improve his prospects.

There he led a sort of double life. During the day he worked as a car mechanic and even opened his own workshop. During the night he led a dissipated life, fuelled by vast amounts of alcohol. Despite being illiterate, he associated with many leftist intellectuals. He was married and had four children. At 40 years of age he suddenly began to draw. His work mainly focuses on secretive figures. The figures could possibly be seen as representations of his past. The figures appear veiled; one recognises an occasional glance, a mouth, or perhaps a male sexual organ. They have a demonic, misshapen, and utopian effect. Over time he refined his technique of interlocking shading, while increasing the size of his compositions.

His works can be found in important Art Brut collections all over the world, for example at The Museum of Everything, the collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, France, and the Treger-Saint Silvestre collection, Portugal. As of 2021, Davood Koochaki has also been represented in the 921 works of the “Donation d'Art Brut de Bruno Decharme” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Selected works