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DOI Artikel:Kleiber, Katarzyna: The images of Ayatollah Khomeini: a confrontation and reconciliation of Iranian and Western art forms
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29069#0179
KATARZYNA KLEIBER
THE IMAGES OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI:
A CONFRONTATION AND RECONCILIATION OF IRANIAN
AND WESTERN ART FORMS
I. INTRODUCTION
This article deals with a confrontation that took place in the realm of
Iranian art between 1979 and 1988. On one side of the conflict stood tra-
ditional Persian art, represented by coffeehouse painting and miniatures,
depicting Islamie subject matters and symbols, appealing to common
people's tasteh on the other side - Iranian art imitating contemporary
American and European works, closely connected with the patronage and
approval of the last shah and his courtk Besides these two main oppo-
nents, in the Iranian artistic scene of these times there was a wide array
of minor players including artists inspired by political posters advocating
communist ideology (produced in Russia sińce the October Revolution
onwards and in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong) and
whose who quote artistic Solutions typical of the revolutionary art of Lat-
in America and Africa from the 1950s through the 1970s.3 The sphere,
1 For the traditional art in the twentieth century Iran, see K. Emami, Tost-Qajar
Painting', in: E. Yarshater (ed.), Encyciogaedia 7ra7?ica vol. 2, London: Routledge & Paul
1987, p. 641: M. Goodarzi, TdriAA-e 7?aędsAi-ye ird77.' az dgAdz id asr-e ^dżer, /AAisiory o/*
Ara77ian PazhihTg.* iAe Pegi7777ing io iAe Prese77i7, Tehran: Vezarat-e farhang va
ershad-e eslami 1384, pp. 67-86.
2 The last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (reigning 1941-1979), an uncritical adhe-
rent of Westernization of the country, gathered an impressive private collection of Ameri-
can and European art of the twentieth century, including works of the Post-Impressio-
nists, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and many other famous
Western artists. Besides this collecting activity, he institutionally supported Iranian
Western-like art e.g., founded the lirst Iranian museum of contemporary art (in 1977 in
Tehran), see R. Hobbs, 'Museum under Siege', Ari in America, 69 no 8 (October 1981),
pp. 17-25; R. Issa et al., A7Y?nia77 CcwtezTrporary Ari, London: Booth-Clibborn 2001, p. 22;
S. Mc-Fadden, 'The Museum and Revolution', Ari izz America, 69 no 8 (October 1981),
pp. 9-16.
s The pictures inspired either by Soviet and Chinese posters or by the revolutionary
art of the Third World appeared in the circle of the Iranian Left and served as its visual
THE IMAGES OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI:
A CONFRONTATION AND RECONCILIATION OF IRANIAN
AND WESTERN ART FORMS
I. INTRODUCTION
This article deals with a confrontation that took place in the realm of
Iranian art between 1979 and 1988. On one side of the conflict stood tra-
ditional Persian art, represented by coffeehouse painting and miniatures,
depicting Islamie subject matters and symbols, appealing to common
people's tasteh on the other side - Iranian art imitating contemporary
American and European works, closely connected with the patronage and
approval of the last shah and his courtk Besides these two main oppo-
nents, in the Iranian artistic scene of these times there was a wide array
of minor players including artists inspired by political posters advocating
communist ideology (produced in Russia sińce the October Revolution
onwards and in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong) and
whose who quote artistic Solutions typical of the revolutionary art of Lat-
in America and Africa from the 1950s through the 1970s.3 The sphere,
1 For the traditional art in the twentieth century Iran, see K. Emami, Tost-Qajar
Painting', in: E. Yarshater (ed.), Encyciogaedia 7ra7?ica vol. 2, London: Routledge & Paul
1987, p. 641: M. Goodarzi, TdriAA-e 7?aędsAi-ye ird77.' az dgAdz id asr-e ^dżer, /AAisiory o/*
Ara77ian PazhihTg.* iAe Pegi7777ing io iAe Prese77i7, Tehran: Vezarat-e farhang va
ershad-e eslami 1384, pp. 67-86.
2 The last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (reigning 1941-1979), an uncritical adhe-
rent of Westernization of the country, gathered an impressive private collection of Ameri-
can and European art of the twentieth century, including works of the Post-Impressio-
nists, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and many other famous
Western artists. Besides this collecting activity, he institutionally supported Iranian
Western-like art e.g., founded the lirst Iranian museum of contemporary art (in 1977 in
Tehran), see R. Hobbs, 'Museum under Siege', Ari in America, 69 no 8 (October 1981),
pp. 17-25; R. Issa et al., A7Y?nia77 CcwtezTrporary Ari, London: Booth-Clibborn 2001, p. 22;
S. Mc-Fadden, 'The Museum and Revolution', Ari izz America, 69 no 8 (October 1981),
pp. 9-16.
s The pictures inspired either by Soviet and Chinese posters or by the revolutionary
art of the Third World appeared in the circle of the Iranian Left and served as its visual