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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#0182
180
KATARZYNA KLEIBER
What I analyze is how art currents are cross-cultural, transcend na-
tional borders and how they could be used for utterly different purposes
than those for which they were initially employed. In an attempt to an-
swer the question of why Iranian painters and illustrators copied some
Western artistic forms, I investigate the differences between the Euro-
American way of thinking about art and the Iranian conception of artistic
creation.
II. METHODOLOGY
The images of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Iranian revolutionary and
war-time posters have not yet been fully academically investigated, and,
as such, cause many interpretive problems. If we assumed that the facts
from which art historians generate interpretations are usually stored as
information about works (datę, provenance etc.) and biographical ac-
counts about artists, the undated and anonymous pictures of Khomeinh
make virtually no traditional art historical comparative study possible.^
How can one point out references to other artwork, if there is no data
about their authors (their education, travels, personal contacts with for-
eign artists etc.) or the reproductions and replicas of Western pictures?
However, the explanatory difficulties appear not exclusively due to
the insufficiency of documentary materiał. Another problem stems from
the fact that no one can get to know or recognize what is in an artisfs
mind or visual memory, and thus be surę that s/he has discovered the
real intention of the author.9
^ During the Islamie Revolution and years following it, practically nobody in Iran
paid attention to documenting ephemeral political posters and leatiets. Besides, the revo-
lutionary artists themselves did not want to disclose their identity, especially in times
when the victory of the Islamists was not a foregone conclusion, see Sh. Balaghi, L. Gum-
pert (eds.), op.cit., pp. 12-14.
s "Traditional comparative study" refers here to various scholarly strategies/ap-
proaches focused on searching historie data which might acknowledge the relationships
between and a picture and its visual prototype(s), for example the O. Batschmann concept
of "historie explanation of pictures". According to this scholar, an art historian should find
evidence that an artist traveled to the place, where he might have seen a visual prototype
for his own artwork or acquired the books with pictures that might have inspired him. For
further information about BatschmanRs method, see O. Batschmann, h?. die
Die AMs/eg^g' uo?7 Rddern, Darmstadt: Wissenschaft-
liche Buchgesellschaft 1984, pp. 98-102 or his interpretation of Poussin's 'Pyramus and
Thisbe' in O. Batschmann, Adco/us PoMSsh!..' Dia/ecdcs o/* PahPb^g, London: Reaktion
Books Ltd. 1990, pp. 93-111.
9 S. Czekalski, op.cit., p. 76 ff.
KATARZYNA KLEIBER
What I analyze is how art currents are cross-cultural, transcend na-
tional borders and how they could be used for utterly different purposes
than those for which they were initially employed. In an attempt to an-
swer the question of why Iranian painters and illustrators copied some
Western artistic forms, I investigate the differences between the Euro-
American way of thinking about art and the Iranian conception of artistic
creation.
II. METHODOLOGY
The images of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Iranian revolutionary and
war-time posters have not yet been fully academically investigated, and,
as such, cause many interpretive problems. If we assumed that the facts
from which art historians generate interpretations are usually stored as
information about works (datę, provenance etc.) and biographical ac-
counts about artists, the undated and anonymous pictures of Khomeinh
make virtually no traditional art historical comparative study possible.^
How can one point out references to other artwork, if there is no data
about their authors (their education, travels, personal contacts with for-
eign artists etc.) or the reproductions and replicas of Western pictures?
However, the explanatory difficulties appear not exclusively due to
the insufficiency of documentary materiał. Another problem stems from
the fact that no one can get to know or recognize what is in an artisfs
mind or visual memory, and thus be surę that s/he has discovered the
real intention of the author.9
^ During the Islamie Revolution and years following it, practically nobody in Iran
paid attention to documenting ephemeral political posters and leatiets. Besides, the revo-
lutionary artists themselves did not want to disclose their identity, especially in times
when the victory of the Islamists was not a foregone conclusion, see Sh. Balaghi, L. Gum-
pert (eds.), op.cit., pp. 12-14.
s "Traditional comparative study" refers here to various scholarly strategies/ap-
proaches focused on searching historie data which might acknowledge the relationships
between and a picture and its visual prototype(s), for example the O. Batschmann concept
of "historie explanation of pictures". According to this scholar, an art historian should find
evidence that an artist traveled to the place, where he might have seen a visual prototype
for his own artwork or acquired the books with pictures that might have inspired him. For
further information about BatschmanRs method, see O. Batschmann, h?. die
Die AMs/eg^g' uo?7 Rddern, Darmstadt: Wissenschaft-
liche Buchgesellschaft 1984, pp. 98-102 or his interpretation of Poussin's 'Pyramus and
Thisbe' in O. Batschmann, Adco/us PoMSsh!..' Dia/ecdcs o/* PahPb^g, London: Reaktion
Books Ltd. 1990, pp. 93-111.
9 S. Czekalski, op.cit., p. 76 ff.