ERIC & SHEILA
ERIC & SHEILA BEL AIR CALIFORNIA, 1965
FROM DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE GLOBE, AND INCONCEIVABLY DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS THEY SHARED A LIFE THAT CELEBRATED DIVERSITY AND VALUED ARTISTIC EXPRESSION.
ERIC AND SHEILA AZARI WERE PATRONS OF THE ARTS IN TEHRAN FROM THE LATE 1950S THROUGH THE 1970S. IN THEIR HOME THEY CREATED THE UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT OF CREATIVITY, TOLERANCE, INSPIRATION AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE THAT ALLOWED MANY OF IRANʼS ARTISTS OF THE TIME - BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, SOME ALREADY ESTABLISHED AND OTHERS COMPLETELY UNKNOWN - TO EXPLORE NEW AVENUES OF EXPRESSION. DEEPLY PASSIONATE ABOUT IRANʼS HISTORY AND RICH CULTURE, ERIC AND SHEILA COLLECTED BROADLY, AND IN SO DOING THEY SOUGHT OUT AND ENCOURAGED A NEW GENERATION OF IRANIAN ARTISTS.
Eric and Sheila met at university in Berkeley, California. He was a Physicist and she studied art history. Eric was of Russian and Iranian descent and Sheila was born in Chicago to an irish father, her mother was from a multigenerational Kentucky banking family. As a direct consequence of his father’s passing, Eric moved back to Tehran in 1959 and was later joined by his family. The move was only intended to be temporary, to help manage family affairs, and they moved back to Los Angeles five years later in 1964.
ERIC DAVAR AZARI
BORN IN MOSCOW TO A PERSIAN ZOROASTRIAN FATHER FROM AZERBAIJAN AND A GEORGIAN JEWISH MOTHER.
ERIC’S FATHER EMBRACED WESTERN MODERNIZATION AND WAS AN INNOVATOR AND ENTREPRENEUR. HE AND HIS WIFE ZINAIA BUILT ONE OF THE FIRST MODERNIST HOUSES IN DARROUS, THE FOOTHILLS OF TEHRAN WHERE THEY LIVED WITH THEIR THREE CHILDREN.
REZA AND ZINA AT THE ENTRANCE TO THEIR HOUSE, DARROUS TEHRAN. THE HOUSE STILL STANDS TODAY
REZA, ZINIA AND ERIC, TEHRAN CA 1948
THEY SENT THEIR THREE CHILDREN TO UC BERKLEY IN CALIFORNIA
ERIC WAS BORN IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA, HIS MOTHER ASIAN GEORGIA, JEWISH. HIS FATHER BORN IN AZERBAIJAN WAS ZOROASTRIAN
SHEILA HAMMOND O’CONNOR
SHEILA WAS AN ONLY CHILD. BORN IN CHICAGO, SHE GREW UP IN SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA.
SHEILA'S PARENTS MARY LOUISE AND EUGENE ALSO CAME FROM DISPARATE BACKGROUNDS, AN IRISH CATHOLIC FATHER AND AN SOUTHERN BAPTIST MOTHER.
“MY FATHER HATED THE RACISM IN KENTUCKY SO WE MOVED TO SANTA BARBRA. IT WAS A SMALL TOWN FILLED WITH RETIRED PEOLPE, I COULDN’T WAIT TO GET OUT. “
SHEILA WITH HER DOG SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
SHEILA’S WAS BORN IN CHICAGO, HER MOTHER IN KENTUCKY AND HER FATHER, A FIRST GENERATION IRISH IMMIGRANT, IN CHICAGO.
ERIC AND SHEILA MET AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKLEY. ERIC STUDIED MATH AND PHYSICS, SHEILA STUDIED MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY AND ART.
AFTER GRADUATING UC BERKLEY THEY MOVED TO THE PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
SHEILA, MARC AND ERICA AZARI, 1957
“I went back to Iran in 1959 with the idea that I would visit my father and then return to the United States to finish my studies. But my father died and out of necessity I became involved in his business, trying to liquidate it at the very least. My wife Sheila and our three children joined me and we lived in Teheran from 1959 to 1964.”
ERIC AZARI
THE AZARI CHILDREN ARE A MIXTURE OF PERSIAN ZOROASTRIAN, GEORGIAN JEWISH, IRISH CATHOLIC AND ANGLO SOUTHERN BAPTIST, AMONG OTHER THINGS.
PASSPORT PHOTO LOS ANGELES 1959
FROM LEFT; MARC, ERICA, SHEILA, DARIUS AZARI
IN 1964 THEY RETURNED TO LOS ANGELES AND REMAINED DEEPLY CONNECTED TO TEHRAN AND ITS CREATIVE COMMUNITY.
SHEILA AND CHILDREN, LOS ANGELES 1964