“I don’t know the exact cause of her death, but I know she fell down the stairs at her home about two weeks ago and hurt her pelvis,” director of the Association of Iranian Sculptors, Abbas Majidi, told the Persian service of ISNA.

The association plans to organize a memorial service for Teryan this week, he added.

She studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Tehran and then left the country to continue her education in France.

In 1961, Teryan returned home and began a career in teaching at the Faculty of Decorative Arts. She introduced modern sculpture to the academic centers in Iran and then established the Sculpture Department at the faculty.

She spent about 30 years teaching sculpture in various academic centers in Iran and many renowned Iranian sculptors learned the art at the centers.

A statue of the early medieval Armenian linguist, composer and theologian, Mesrop Mashtots, located at the Tarkmanchatz Church in Tehran, is one of her outstanding works.

She also created a bust of Yeprem Khan, an Iranian-Armenian revolutionary leader and a leading figure in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, which is located at the Saint Mary Church in Tehran.

In February 2007, the Imam Ali Religious Arts Museum in Tehran honored Teryan for her lifetime achievements.

“I draw inspiration from events and scenes that outwardly seem unimportant,” Teryan once said in an interview.

“For example, I made my ‘Mother and Child’ based an idea that arose when I saw one of my relatives with her newborn baby. The mother held her baby in her arms and the scene inspired me to make the sculpture.”

Source: Tehran Times