History, Identity, Memory: Nikzad Nodjoumi’sArzhang

Iranian Studies, Volume 45, 2012 - Issue 6, 2012

Amidst Shadow and Light: Contemporary Iranian Art and Artists comprises a collection of essays that deal with the problematics of modernism and to some extent postmodernism in the works of Iranian visual artists. The essays provide a valuable roster of Iranian artists and provide analyses and excellent illustrations of their visual artworks. They focus on the origin, history of development, modes of interpretive appropriations of modernist themes and styles in Iran and pursue their theoretical implications. The essays were originally presented at the Barakat International conference on “Contemporary Iranian Art,” held at Oxford University in July 2005. Edited by art critic and historian Hamid Keshmirshekan, the essays continue to impart discernible traces of the energy and spontaneity characteristic of their initial oral presentations.

This paper will delve into the history of art in Iran in order to analyze the authenticity of artistic development from early times. I will argue that Iranian Modern Art sprang from a modernity unique to Iran and that this art was an innovative manifestation of Iranian history, culture, and values.

Arts

This article examines the notions of history and memory with references to the works of contemporary artists from Iran. It interrogates the theme of challenging the present through the re-interpretation of history and investigates how artists respond to social, cultural and political conditions by creating a multi-faceted aesthetics of resistance. While looking at the broader subject of history and memory in contemporary Iran, the article scrutinises the works of artists who have been involved in themes such as the embodiment of cultural memory, concern for truth, historical record and intellectual reference to history to reflect the present. I adopt a hauntological interpretation when reading works of artists as it corresponds to their recurring references to the past to invoke an unsettling view of an imagined future.

Muqarnas, Brill, 2006

This article concerns both the major discourses on art and artistic production in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution; its aim is to define the emergence of neotraditionalism in the art of the 1990s.1 To do this, I will examine the major artistic trends and discourses within the socio-cultural context of postrevolutionary Iran, including art exhibitions held in the country. I will consider the impact of the Islamic Revolution on the formation of the discourse of muta'ahhid ("committed," i.e., revolutionary) art and will analyze the intellectual and governmental discourses and their role in the development of new postrevolutionary artistic trends, among which I will emphasize neotraditionalism. Throughout this discussion, I will explore the revival of the intellectual and artistic preoccupations of the prerevolutionary generation, mainly from the 1960s, and will examine the relationship between their works and those of particular neotraditionalist artists active in the 1990s.

2016

This practice-based research explores the notion of Iranian cultural identity as reflected in artworks exhibited in the Tehran Biennials (1958- 1966) and in a particular individual practice. This research uses the five Tehran Biennales and their national and international context as a tool to reveal the development of their influence on the construction of new images of Iranian identity. The research frames these national exhibitions within the influence of Western modernism and Western critique of orientalism. It frames its enquiry in historical and theoretical research and my studio practice as a contemporary Iranian artist. It constructs a methodology appropriate for visual analysis across the five events and for examination and comparison of individual artists and artworks. A core aim of the enquiry is gaining better understanding of the tensions between Iranian-Islamic and pre-Islamic traditions and of the changing national sentiment and the influence of Western modernism in th...

Iranian Studies, Volume 49, 2016 - Issue 1, 2015

In recent years academic interest in contemporary Iranian art has flourished. Art historians, critics and writers from across the globe are engaging with the richness and diversity of work created in the region, resulting in exhibitions, conferences and publications, many of which are in English. For all this interest, however, there remain distinct gaps in our knowledge of contemporary Iranian art, which stands in contrast to the wealth of material focused on earlier periods of art produced in the region, and across the Islamic world. Hamid Keshmirshekan’s landmark and ambitious book, Contemporary Iranian Art: New Perspectives, seeks to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive introduction to the developments and transformations of Iranian art during the modern and contemporary period.

Iranian Studies, 2025

This article investigates the artistic milieu of the Qajar dynasty through a critical analysis of the distinctive and sophisticated style of Mahmud Khan Malek al-Shuʿara ˉ(1813-93), contextualizing his work alongside that of his contemporaries, with particular emphasis on Kamal al-Mulk (1859-1940), the most renowned painter of the period. Through close analysis of selected paintings, this study reveals the layered complexity of Mahmud Khan's visual language and underscores the broader interplay between Qajar art and European artistic traditions. Although this inquiry does not seek to provide a reading of modern Iranian art, it contends that Mahmud Khan's oeuvre warrants serious critical attention-especially within non-Persian language scholarship-as a pivotal yet overlooked juncture in Iranian art history and a missed opportunity for articulating a meaningful continuum between Iran's classical aesthetic heritage and its modern visual expression.

journal of art & civilization of the orient, 2018

In recent years contemporary Iranian art has caught the attention of the people across the world more than before. Undoubtedly, successful presence of Iranian artists in recent auctions and their numerous exhibitions throughout the Europe and USA have been influential in the process of globalization of contemporary Iranian art. Meanwhile since nationality and religion are two significant factors in creation of distinctive identity for an individual and build his identity versus the identity of the other Iranian artist insists on his national and religious identity in order to continue to be successful in global scene and recognized by western audience. On the other hand, western audience does also consider these elements to be the source of the distinction of him and the oriental other and via these identity-related features he recognizes Iranian artist and accepts him in the global scene. Thus, Iranian artist represents these identity elements in his work in order to be seen in global market. In this way Iranian artists seek to keep their eyes on the form and content of successful works in auctions for their fast entering to sale and transaction cycle. In other words, these new artistic works struggle to reproduce the same familiar national and religious elements with which the previous successful works have earned their fame. Insofar as in many of these works the use of the aforementioned elements by artist is not based on the relationship of the formal and content structure rather for the sake of injection of the symbols which are reminding national or religious notions that catch the attention of the audience. The methodology of the current research is descriptive-analytic and the data have been gathered by means of library studies.

For almost forty years, discussions about contemporary Iran have been overshadowed by political issues and the tumultuous atmosphere of the Middle East. Media coverage of the Islamic Revolution (1979), the Iran hostage crisis (1979-1981), the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), presidential elections (1997, 2009, 2013) and the Iran nuclear deal (2015) on the one hand, and the explosive growth of social networks propagating political and human rights issues on the other, marginalized to some extent the art and popular culture produced within Iran’s geographical borders. After Hedayat and Farrokhzad, new generations of Modernists are introduced to Persian literature. Women find a new voice in cinema and popular literature. Many bestsellers are written by women, ranging from the secular novels of Pirzad and Rahimi to the ideologically charged war narratives of Hoseyni and Abad. Post-revolutionary Iran announces international painters like Farshchian and film directors who have been Oscar, Golden Globe, Cannes and Berlin festival winners, such as Farhadi, Kiarostami, Majidi, Panahi, Makhmalbaf and others. This seminar thus seeks to explore the complexities of Iranian contemporary art and culture, discuss its religious, artistic, and sociopolitical dimensions, and even trace the emergence of discourses perhaps neglected to some extent by Western academia until now. Advocating a comparative cultural approach, this seminar aims to reflect the apparent contradictions between subversive and reinforcing discourses embedded in many cultural products in a seemingly inflexible structure. The process of their cultural formation may well reflect not only what might be considered Iran’s 'central values' but also the continuously evolving and revisionist qualities of those beliefs as acted out in culture. Our seminar will address these new possibilities: the less immediately perceptible narrative versions of Iran as produced by Iranians themselves for (inter)national audiences, whether in Iran or in its diaspora, as manifested in post-Revolution literature, cinema, music, fine art, popular culture and mass media.