Fereshteh Daftari

Layla S. Diba

'Iran Modern' offers a timely exploration of the cultural diversity and production of avant-garde art in Iran after World War II and up to the revolution, from 1950 through to 1979.

Iran Modern

Supported by a thriving art market in the Persian Gulf, interest in Iranian modern art has intensified in recent years. Iran Modern offers a timely exploration of the cultural diversity and production of avant-garde art in Iran after the Second World War and up to the revolution - from 1950 through 1979. Ten essays by distinguished scholars of art and history elucidate the early development of Iranian artists, patrons, galleries, art schools, architects, and writers who influenced and participated in the dynamic decades of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The essays describe a time when Iran experienced an outpouring of original and creative modern art and when the country was very much a part of the international art world. Exhibition: Asia Society Museum, NYC, USA (07.09.2013-05.01.2014).

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet tells the story of the evolution of Iranian contemporary art by examining the work of 30 artists. This is art where the ills of internal politics remain astutely masked below a layer of ornamentation, poetry, or humor. What unites the disparate works into a coherent theme is the artists' coping mechanisms, which consist of subversive critique, quiet rebellion, humor, mysticism, and poetry--hence the publications title. The subtitle Contemporary Persians is also a reference to a strategy of survival, this one used by Iranians in the United States during the early 2000s; at a time when 'Iranians' were identified with hostage takers and terrorists, they adopted the identity 'Persians', which remained free of such associations. This title collects the work of a number of artists who are already well-known in the United States, including among others Afruz Amighi, whose work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Monir Farmanfarmaian, who received a major exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 2015.

Contemporary Persians

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet

Orhan Pamuk

Homi K. Bhabha

Published to accompany an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 26 February - 22 May 2006.

Fereshteh Daftari

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