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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#0196
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KATARZYNA KLEIBER
understand it? For example, were they aware of the original meaning of
the non-Iranian subject matters and iconography? If so, did this actual,
genuine significance support and strengthen a sense of Iranian revolu-
tionary and wartime propaganda? Or, to the contrary, did it weaken the
propagandistic visual message and make it ambiguous?
As to the first question, most scholars tracę the beginnings of Iranian
reception of contemporary European art to as late as 1911.24 What should
be emphasized here is the fact that the Western art admired and ac-
quired by the Iranian artist in those days had nothing to do with the
most recent artistic currents in the West.25 For example, in the times of
cubism and futurism in Europę, the painters in Iran, even those trained
overseas, invariably copied cliched academic art of the tum of the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries. The Western avant-garde art movements
created in the first decade of the twentieth century were introduced in
Iran almost forty years later - in late 1940s.26 Throughout the next few
years, the Iranian artists acquainted themselves with all remaining ar-
tistic currents transferred from Europę and the USA (e.g. surrealism,
pop art).2? As mentioned earlier, the profound role in supporting this
trend was played by the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who, encour-
aged by his third wife, Farah Diba, started collecting contemporary Euro-
American art and its Iranian imitations and supporting enterprises
aimed to popularize these kinds of art.28 One of the consequences of this
rapid and artificially accelerated reception of the Western artistic move-
ments was its superficial character, unfavorable to in-depth understand-
ing of the theoretical basis of contemporary Euro-American art.29 It is
therefore no surprise that the Iranians imitated chiefly the visual aspects
of Western art (composition, coloring, subject matters) and, in generał,
remained blithely unconcerned about its significance.
In addition to the process of reception itself, there were of course oth-
er factors which determined the Iranians' knowledge and attitude to-
wards Euro-American art. The most crucial of them was indisputably a
distribution of original Western artworks in Iran and their accessibility
to an average Iranian. Because of the very scanty data^o, it seems im-
24 F. Daftari, 'Another Modernism: An Iranian Perspective', in: Sh. Balaghi, L. Gum-
pert (eds.), op.cit., pp. 41-44; M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 87-103; R. Issa et. al, op.cit., p. 14.
25 F. Daftari, op.cit., pp. 44-45; M. Goodarzi, op.cit., p. 103.
26 F. Daftari, op.cit., pp. 45-47; Issa et at, op.cit., p. 15.
2? M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 103-136; Issa et at, op.cit., p. 16.
28 Gh. Afkami, TAe Li/c (md Times o/" iAe Berkeley: University of California
Press 2009, pp. 417-422; F. Daftari, op.cit., p. 72; R. Issa et al., op.cit., pp. 17 and 22.
29 M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 99-136.
80 R. Issa et al., op.cit., pp. 15 and 22.
KATARZYNA KLEIBER
understand it? For example, were they aware of the original meaning of
the non-Iranian subject matters and iconography? If so, did this actual,
genuine significance support and strengthen a sense of Iranian revolu-
tionary and wartime propaganda? Or, to the contrary, did it weaken the
propagandistic visual message and make it ambiguous?
As to the first question, most scholars tracę the beginnings of Iranian
reception of contemporary European art to as late as 1911.24 What should
be emphasized here is the fact that the Western art admired and ac-
quired by the Iranian artist in those days had nothing to do with the
most recent artistic currents in the West.25 For example, in the times of
cubism and futurism in Europę, the painters in Iran, even those trained
overseas, invariably copied cliched academic art of the tum of the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries. The Western avant-garde art movements
created in the first decade of the twentieth century were introduced in
Iran almost forty years later - in late 1940s.26 Throughout the next few
years, the Iranian artists acquainted themselves with all remaining ar-
tistic currents transferred from Europę and the USA (e.g. surrealism,
pop art).2? As mentioned earlier, the profound role in supporting this
trend was played by the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who, encour-
aged by his third wife, Farah Diba, started collecting contemporary Euro-
American art and its Iranian imitations and supporting enterprises
aimed to popularize these kinds of art.28 One of the consequences of this
rapid and artificially accelerated reception of the Western artistic move-
ments was its superficial character, unfavorable to in-depth understand-
ing of the theoretical basis of contemporary Euro-American art.29 It is
therefore no surprise that the Iranians imitated chiefly the visual aspects
of Western art (composition, coloring, subject matters) and, in generał,
remained blithely unconcerned about its significance.
In addition to the process of reception itself, there were of course oth-
er factors which determined the Iranians' knowledge and attitude to-
wards Euro-American art. The most crucial of them was indisputably a
distribution of original Western artworks in Iran and their accessibility
to an average Iranian. Because of the very scanty data^o, it seems im-
24 F. Daftari, 'Another Modernism: An Iranian Perspective', in: Sh. Balaghi, L. Gum-
pert (eds.), op.cit., pp. 41-44; M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 87-103; R. Issa et. al, op.cit., p. 14.
25 F. Daftari, op.cit., pp. 44-45; M. Goodarzi, op.cit., p. 103.
26 F. Daftari, op.cit., pp. 45-47; Issa et at, op.cit., p. 15.
2? M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 103-136; Issa et at, op.cit., p. 16.
28 Gh. Afkami, TAe Li/c (md Times o/" iAe Berkeley: University of California
Press 2009, pp. 417-422; F. Daftari, op.cit., p. 72; R. Issa et al., op.cit., pp. 17 and 22.
29 M. Goodarzi, op.cit., pp. 99-136.
80 R. Issa et al., op.cit., pp. 15 and 22.