Vaziri participates in the XXIX Venice Biennial with "A Persian City" (Oil Colour, 75x100 cm).
He receives the third prize (bronze medal) and the Certificate of Merit (exclusive to overseas artists) at the "Premio Via Margutta", organised by the City of Rome.
He graduates from the Rome Academy of Fine Arts with a thesis on Mondrian and His Influence on the 20th Century Art.
He then abolishes representational painting, and starts studying the material, texture, expressive prospects of line and rhythm. His style in monochrome abstract painting, as the result of some rapid gestures, is an obvious influence coming from "L'Art Informel"; this period lasts about two years.
One of these abstract works takes part in the Ravenna International Painting Award, in Italy, and receives the Diploma of Honour and the Prime Minister's Award. Entitled as "Rhythm of the Fishing Net on the Canal", the oil painting is now kept at the Prime Ministry's Collection.
1959
In late 1959, Vaziri puts a number of his abstract paintings in a group exhibition at the Trastevere Art Gallery in Rome.
Still, Vaziri is searching for a kind of particular and individual mode, and eventually, in the late spring 1959, in the black sand shore of Albano Lake, he fulfils his goal. He has mentioned many times such a play-like experience as the turning point of his artistic career: "I was playing with the black sand of the shore to entertain my friends; all of a sudden, my fingers’ traces on the sand attracted my attention. There I had a fresh idea for myself; I recalled my childhood memories and my sand games… I recalled something I had already done before. An aimless game had already been turned into a profound visual practice. I ended up the game with my friends, and returned to Rome, of course, with a sack of sand. Finding shapes in the sand was a hobby, and it took months before I could prove the grooves I made on my canvas."11
Vaziri's approach was due to his deep understanding of abstract art and his awareness of movements in the contemporary art, which appealed to some eminent critics, like Giulio Carlo Argan. Such sand-model drawings continued up to 1963, and were displayed in some exhibitions.