He was a cousin of the celebrated Persian illustrator and cartoonist, Ardeshir Mohasses, residing in New York.At age 14, he learned painting by apprenticing with Seyyed Mohammed Habib Mohammedi, who had studied art in Moscow at the Russian Academy of Arts.He moved with his family from Rasht to Tehran, where he attended Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts. During the same period he joined the “Cockfight Art and Culture Society” (Anjoman-e Khorous Jangi), established by Jalil Ziapour, and was, for some time, the editor of the literary and art weekly “Panjeh Khoroos” (Rooster Foot).