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October
2002
“Between Word and Image: Modern Iranian Visual
Culture”
Grey Art Gallery, New York University (Until December
7)
In the 1960s and '70s, Iranian artists explored abstraction,
adapting it by drawing from materials and symbols of
the Persian tradition such as the bestiary of legends,
calligraphy, ornament or public vernacular architecture.
Co-curator Fereshteh Dufari, writes: “Iran modernism…
was not synonymous with the one constructed in the West….the
fundamental questions addressed by Iranian modernism
had to do with the notion of identity.” One of
the most interesting artists in this abstract vein is
Zenderoudi, whose use of the Persian alphabet evolved
over the years from rigid geometric patterns to a rhythmic
field where masses of illegible characters swirl and
collide like crowds or armies. Tanavoli’s bronze
columns integrate found objects such as antique keys
and locks from the local bazaar. Siah Armajoni’s
works uses calligraphy, both in hand-made and computer-generated
works. Sepehri produces large, light brushwork in sepia
and desert tones sometimes evoking Hans Hartung.
The exhibition’s second section features Abbas, a
Paris-based Iranian photographer who returned to his country
as of 1971 to document the social and economic changes
brought on by the expanding oil industry. What had started
as a documentation of everyday life changed in nature
when one of his visits coincided with the outbreak of
the Iranian Revolution In an interview with critic Shiva
Balaghi, he explains:” The revolution started with
small streams and suddenly the small streams came together
and it became like a huge river. I went on the streets
of Teheran and started photographing.” In his photographs
we begin to see the transition of the Revolution from
a popular uprising to an increasingly Islamic movement,
where scenes like those he documented in the beginning,
such as women at a beauty salon, would be unthinkable.
Abbas’s pictures of Iran have been published in two
books: La Revolution confisquée (1980) and Iran
Diary (2002).
A poster’s life is ephemeral by nature but fortunately
a good number of them have been preserved, and the show’s
third section features political posters produced in the
last thirty years. They were used as props in demonstrations
or covered the walls of Iran’s cities, including
school and factory walls, and public monuments. There
are some examples of pro-Shah posters celebrating his
economic achievements, but poster art flourishes in the
late 1970s with images such as the one of footprints smashing
the diadem that represents Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlevi.
Some posters were created by amateurs, some by leading
Iranian artists like those who opened a workshop at the
University of Tehran in 1978. They draw from various traditions
- some mingling calligraphy with representation, some
inspired by Pop Art and some close to the black, red and
white Rosta posters created in the 1920s in the USSR by
Rodchenko. Produced with modest means in offset, lithography
or silkscreen, they often use very vivid colors such as
violet, turquoise, orange, red and green. The posters
integrate photomontage and Marxist slogans as well as
excerpts from classical poetry.
-- Carole Naggar |
