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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#0199
THE IMAGES OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI
197
ness for bright colors). Social realism, in tum, shares with Persian art
a tendency towards depicting details and idealizing some aspects of
pictures.
In light of the above remarks, it seems that the main reason tor em-
ploying artistic Solutions (motifs or whole compositions) from Western art
in the images of Ayatollah Khomeini is visual attractiveness based on
their similarity to values prized in traditional Persian art. Even if an
Iranian recipient accidentally discovered a Western prototype of these
pictures, as a rule, it would not have negatively influenced her/his per-
ception of what was depicted. This observation applies both to Khomei-
nfs portraits inspired by Christian art and those based on totalitarian
art of Nazi Germany and the USSR. In the context of Islamie tradition,
Holy Mary (in Arabie and Persian called Mariam) and Jesus (Isa) are
held in high esteem, and thus there is no reason to reject iconographical
traditions linked with these characters. Analogously, there is no ground
to dismiss these images of Khomeini which were based on Stalin or Hit-
ler, for, strange as it might seem to a Western audience, these two politi-
cians did not raise so many negative associations in Iran as they did in
Europę.37
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that at least in some instances
Western originals were used purposely by Iranian artists. This practice
might have been aimed to orchestrate revolutionary and war purposes by
those Iranians who associated the Euramerican art with ideologies which
they supported. We might presume that these portraits of Khomeini
which were based on Christian art were probably orientated towards the
Christian minorities in Iran; these resembling the Soviet visual propa-
ganda might have appealed to the Iranian Left.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURĘ DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The images of Ayatollah Khomeini analysed here, to the European or
American eye seem to be totally imitative. For Western recipients they
offer no original visual ąualities - they are just a set of old forms filled
with new meaning (i.e., a political message). However, it must be re-
membered that the creators and first viewers of these pictures did not
perceive them this way.
s? A. Ansari, .Modern Zrań .Since 792Z/ TAe PaAAwis and A/Zer, London: Longman,
2003, pp. 72 and 93; A. Saikal, TAe ZZise and ZAdi o/dAe <SAaA; Zrań /rom, Antocracy A? ZZed-
gions ZZnie, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2009, pp. 24-25; K. Zdulski, ZZZ Zrzesza
a śnnaf isianm fTAe TAird ZZeicA and ZsZanp, Łódź: Ibidem Publishing 2009, pp. 80-83.
197
ness for bright colors). Social realism, in tum, shares with Persian art
a tendency towards depicting details and idealizing some aspects of
pictures.
In light of the above remarks, it seems that the main reason tor em-
ploying artistic Solutions (motifs or whole compositions) from Western art
in the images of Ayatollah Khomeini is visual attractiveness based on
their similarity to values prized in traditional Persian art. Even if an
Iranian recipient accidentally discovered a Western prototype of these
pictures, as a rule, it would not have negatively influenced her/his per-
ception of what was depicted. This observation applies both to Khomei-
nfs portraits inspired by Christian art and those based on totalitarian
art of Nazi Germany and the USSR. In the context of Islamie tradition,
Holy Mary (in Arabie and Persian called Mariam) and Jesus (Isa) are
held in high esteem, and thus there is no reason to reject iconographical
traditions linked with these characters. Analogously, there is no ground
to dismiss these images of Khomeini which were based on Stalin or Hit-
ler, for, strange as it might seem to a Western audience, these two politi-
cians did not raise so many negative associations in Iran as they did in
Europę.37
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that at least in some instances
Western originals were used purposely by Iranian artists. This practice
might have been aimed to orchestrate revolutionary and war purposes by
those Iranians who associated the Euramerican art with ideologies which
they supported. We might presume that these portraits of Khomeini
which were based on Christian art were probably orientated towards the
Christian minorities in Iran; these resembling the Soviet visual propa-
ganda might have appealed to the Iranian Left.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURĘ DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The images of Ayatollah Khomeini analysed here, to the European or
American eye seem to be totally imitative. For Western recipients they
offer no original visual ąualities - they are just a set of old forms filled
with new meaning (i.e., a political message). However, it must be re-
membered that the creators and first viewers of these pictures did not
perceive them this way.
s? A. Ansari, .Modern Zrań .Since 792Z/ TAe PaAAwis and A/Zer, London: Longman,
2003, pp. 72 and 93; A. Saikal, TAe ZZise and ZAdi o/dAe <SAaA; Zrań /rom, Antocracy A? ZZed-
gions ZZnie, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2009, pp. 24-25; K. Zdulski, ZZZ Zrzesza
a śnnaf isianm fTAe TAird ZZeicA and ZsZanp, Łódź: Ibidem Publishing 2009, pp. 80-83.