The portrait is a window into the inner lives of humans and everything that these underlying layers reveal; a window into an individual, a generation, a nation, or into humanity itself Sometimes it refers to the physical resemblance to a me or a you sitting in front of the artist; and sometimes it is a more complex reference and signifier to something or someone nameless; to characteristics and habits; to inner thoughts, anxieties, difficulties, desires, passions, and many others

This collection of portraits by several generations of Iranian artists, alongside all their differences and characteristics, reflects the cultural sphere prevailing in Iran, collective imagination, hopes, desires, and willpower Each image represents a reinterpretation of the Iranian imagination and all its complexities Within this context, three common approaches towards the cultural and mental space of artists have been revisited and categorized:

In a place where the bitterness of life, dead-ends, and despair have closed off the path in the mind and imagination, only a ruined and faded image is displayed, it is called Bitter (Talkhoon)

In a place where, despite all difficulties and pain, the blind artist seeks to find or create beauty, or express a new aesthetic understanding, it is called Sweet (Delbar)

And in a place where amidst wanderings and confusion, the hope of searching and striving to create a new image and reconstruct imagination catches the eye and expended itself in creating another image, it is called Burden (Delkhoon)