Contemporary Iranian Art

Hamid Keshmirshekan is an art historian, critic and Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford and Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual quarterly, Art Tomorrow. His other works include 'Amidst Shadow and Light: Contemporary Iranian Art and Artists'.

• PREFACE NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION INTRODUCTION 1. MODERN CULTURE AND ITS AFFINITY WITH POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF IRAN 2. NATIONALISM AND ITS PLACE IN IRANIAN POLITICAL CULTURE 3. RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND THEIR RELATION TO IRANIAN SOCIO-POLITICAL CULTURE CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1. A TRANSFORMATION IN QAJAR ART 2. THE DAR AL-FUNUN 3. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MADRASA-I SANAYI'-I MUSTAZRAFA (SCHOOL OF FINE ART) IN 1911 4. MADRASA SANAYI'-I QADIMA (SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL ARTS) AND THE FORMATION OF THE SO-CALLED SCHOOL OF TEHRAN CHAPTER 2: DECADES OF HESITANCY AND CONFRONTATION: MODERNISM VERSUS THE STATUS QUO 1. THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN ART MOVEMENT IN IRAN: THE 1940S 2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERNISM DURING THE 1940S AND 1950S CHAPTER 3 QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY, NATIVISM AND NATIONALISM ALONGSIDE MODERNISM IN ART AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CULTURE: NEO-TRADITIONALIST MOVEMENTS 1. THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART AND THE OBSESSION WITH IDENTITY AND CULTURAL CONCERNS: SAQQA-KHANEH; A NEO-TRADITIONALIST MOVEMENT 2. POST-SAQQA-KHANEH AND OTHER TRENDS 2.1. THE GENRE OF 'NEO-CALLIGRAPHY' 2.2. DEVELOPMENT OF MODERNISM IN THE 1970S CHAPTER 4 POST-REVOLUTIONARY ART 1. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ARTISTIC CENTRE OF ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA ORGANISATION (HOWZEH-I HUNARI-I SAZMAN-I TABLIGHAT-I ISLAMI): REVOLUTIONARY ART AND ARTISTS 2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONALIST TRENDS: CALLIGRAPHIC TENDENCIES AND MINIATURE PAINTING 3. POST-REVOLUTIONARY MODERNISM AND DISCOURSES POST-REVOLUTIONARY NATIONAL ART BIENNIALS, THE STATE AND CULTURAL POLICY: CULTURAL IDENTITY IN QUESTION CHAPTER 5: DEVELOPMENT OF POST-REVOLUTIONARY CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSES: THE MID-1990S ONWARD 1. THE EMERGENCE OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND NEW ARTISTIC DISCOURSES 2. PARADIGMS OF CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART 3. CONTEMPORANEITY VERSUS QUESTIONS OF CULTURAL SPECIFICITY CHAPTER 6: IRANIAN DIASPORIC ART BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF COLLECTIONS INDEX

'This masterful work is the product of deep research, which eloquently demonstrates the extraordinary richness of the art of modern and contemporary Iran. Keshmirshekan methodically builds a fascinating narrative, charting the development of the art schools, highlighting the key artists, the movements and debates and bringing us to the highly engaged art of today.' Venetia Porter, Curator, Islamic and contemporary Middle East, The British Museum 'Hamid Keshmirshekan has produced a fascinating, informative and stimulating book, allowing us, for the first time, to trace the history of Iranian art during the last 150 years and to appreciate what is happening to art in Iran today.' James Allan, Professor of Eastern Art, University of Oxford 'Contemporary Iranian Art: New Perspectives is revelatory, scarcely matched and surpassed by none. A master connoisseur with an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject, Dr Keshmirshekan has emerged as the towering historian of contemporary Iranian art.' Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University