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My Name is not Rouge Modern and contemporary miniature
Curated by Ali Bakhtiari
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Introduction
Middle Eastern modern and contemporary Miniature SHIRIN PARTOVI TAVAKOLIAN
Middle Eastern modern and contemporary works are rich in figurative symbols of the nostalgic past. Nonetheless, interpreting such works is not limited to discussions about history and psychological implications of the traditional person. Sagacious commentators of these works describe the courage of the artists who challenge the conservative perception of their society and themselves through historical exploration. This point stems from the fact that the formalistic study of the current exhibition only reveals some truths. Behind these stunning images or beyond the first look one finds hopes, hardships, demands and great hidden grievances. Only your eyes will be able to discover these secrets. It seems that the best way to perceive the intrinsic essence of Middle Eastern artworks is adopting investigative approaches of critics such as Thomas McVilley. In the book Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, he stressed the importance of the connection between the artwork and its historical context. The collection of “My Name Is not Rouge” is an attempt to exhibit the art that is not willing to hide its contextual dependency. In this collection, the age of artists has not been taken into account. In this vein, Parviz Tanavoli, a modern sculpture pioneer in the Middle East, and Farshid Mesghali, one of the greatest Asian illustrators, appear along with emerging artists. Some of the artists in this exhibition are selected by American-Iranian citizens and it is a great honor that the first event in Shirin Gallery is collaboration among societies and peoples of the Middle East and the West. This exhibition’s statement is also our agenda in the future. I hope exhibiting various cultural concepts lays the ground for cultural interactions in the not too distant future. It is my further hope that the message given through these artworks is that when eastern and western motifs coexist artistically, it is possible to make it happen outside of the art world.
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MY NAME IS NOT ROUGE MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY MINIATUre
ALI BAKHTIARI
1950’s are considered an important decade, socially and economically, in the history of contemporary Iran. The years of the petroleum industry’s nationalization, the August 15, 1953 military coup, the publication industry’s expansion and first Tehran Art biennale. The first “Tehran Art Biennal”e was an opportunity for the alternative current (alternative with respect to Kamal ol’molkist classicists) to safeguard an exhibition space. These artists revived two characteristics of Iranian art: reconfiguration of calligraphy and analysis of the “miniature” genre. Their work was influenced by the {Western} modernist cannon, but also strived to revitalize the roots of national culture and art. Gradually, the expansion of the Biennale’s infrastructure, the foundation of Apadana Art gallery and the New Art gallery and the formation of diverse cultural, literary and artistic associations, e.g. “Khorous jangi” {the Warlike Rooster}, would influence the state to emphasize the revivalist tendency in its cultural policies. The painting “blind owl” by Hossein Kazemi can be considered the first updated “miniature”. Alongside Kazemi, this current was continued by Houshang Pezeshknia, Mahmoud Javadipour and later Nasser Oveisi and Zhazeh Tabatabai. Also, efforts of Hadi Tajvidi and the Tehran School in 1960s and later, Mahmoud Farshchian, continued to cull inspiration from The Classical Miniature style.
Hadi Tadjvidi - Ferdosi and other poets at the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna gouache on cardboard - 30x21 cm
Mahmoud Javadipour-New Year Card-lithograph-1959 4| MY NAME IS NOT ROUGE
In the 1960s “Shiraz art festival’s” approach to traditional arts e.g. music, Iranian singing and “Rou Howzi” theatre, could garner contemporary artists’ attention to cultural and historical roots of the Nation. “Miniature fever” was expanded to include advertisement, commodity design and Cinema. The first instances of this type of graphic design can be found among Houshang Kazemi’s works, but it culminated in the 1960s and 70s in the oeuvre of Morteza Momayyez and Ghobad Shiva. Costume design in Ali Hatami’s cinema, cover designs by Parviz Kalantari and Mohammad Tajvidi and childrens’ book illustration
by Nikzad Nojoumi, Ali Akbar Sadeghi and Nafiseh Riahi all emphasized this nationalistic fever in Iranian Arts.
Nikzad Nodjoumi - cover desigh for children book - 21x16 cm - 1968
invitation card for a dance event niyavaran palace -1974
The 1970’s were dominated by Ardeshir Mohasses’ effort to reintroduce Qajari Miniature, Bizhan Saffari’s theatres, Houshang Golshiri’s literature and Bahman Farmanara’s movie “Prince Ehtejab” {based on Golshiri’s novel of the same name}. But at the end of the decade, 1978 uprising and tumult sets the beginning for a new artistic period. The solidified nationalist paradigm in Iranian Art continued to dominate the 1980s and causes new advances in radicalizing miniature and calligraphy in murals, qraphic design and art.
ardeshir mohassess - mouse and cat in safavid school style - 80x65 cm - mid 1970's courtesy of a private collection MY NAME IS NOT ROUGE |5
Artists of the new generation, untouched by the extremists’ point of view, considered reviewing Iran’s history, painting and calligraphy as the mettle of their work. In Reza Derakhshani’s miniatures, despite the simplified technique, attention to the composition and reinterpretation of miniaturist literature creates a new, albeit familiar, combination. In graphic design, Reza Abedini, with special attention to peculiarities of Persian calligraphy, creates a brand new typographical tendency.
Farhad Moshiri - Untitled - mixed media on canvas - 40x50 cm - 1993 - courtesy of a private collection
Farah Ossouli here is an exception to the dominant current. A master of form and structure in miniature, armed with a virtuoso technique, she managed to deconstruct the miniature internally. Farah’s scrutinizing insight and her free imagination accompanied by her technical abilities creates a paradoxical oeuvre, the paradox that is caused by the combination of classical structure and contemporary social interests of the Artist. What in her paintings is outstanding is the insistent presence of artist’s identity regardless of her technique and style. Works of Artists like Parviz Tanavoli, Fereshteh Maleki, Farshid Mesghali and Avish Khebrezadeh, although apparently not miniatures, keep their figurative and narrative ties with the genre. Gizella Varga Sinai, lacking a hereditary knowledge on eastern miniature, demonstrates a romantic approach to the genre with European, or Euro-asian, characteristics. Fereydoun Ave’s collages reveal farah ossouli - Khosrow and Shirin gouache on cardboard - 95x40 cm -1990 - courtesy of the artist
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the robustness of miniaturist ideas, even against unfamiliar artistic mediums. Since The Sassanid period, Iranian miniature has passed through the wall decoration of palaces, illustrative book making tradition, Indian and Mongolian Ilkhanid courts, bird and flower illuminations, Qajari perspective, Tehran Biennale, Art center painters and art auctions, and is still expanding its claim for artistic value.
Works
Artists 08
Parviz TANAVOLI
10
FEREYDOUN AVE
12
FARAH OSSOULI
14
FARSHID MESGHALI
16
GIZELLA VARGA SINAI
18
AVISH KHEBREHZADEH
20
FARSHID MALEKI
22
PARASTOU FOROUHAR
24
MEHRDAD AFSARI
26
SHAHRIAR AHMADI
28
IMAN SAFAEI
30
SHAHPOUR POUYAN
32
YASHAR SAMIMI MOFAKHAM
34
SAFAEDDIN EMAMI
36
FARNAZ RABIEIJAH
38
TARLAN RAFIEE
001
Parviz Tanavoli 1937
About twelve years ago during a casual browsing in the Jome`e Bazaar (Friday Bazaar) of Tehran. I stopped by a secondhand-book dealer and went through some of his older books. His books did not interest me, but a group of old folios drew my attention. These were a mixture of pages from old manuscripts, lithographed books, and handwritten letters. For a few pennies I bought them and took them home.\\\\\ In those days I was working on my book Talisman and my desk was surrounded with books on that subject. Among them, one was more appealing than the others and that was Ajateb al-makhlugat va Gharaeb al Mojudat (the wonders of creation and strange Beings) by Zakaria Mohammed bin Mahmoud al-Makmuni al-Qazvini(hereafter, Qazvini). This book was a reprint of a lithographed book printed in the late Qajar period (1779-1925) and, like its original, was fully illustrated. The illustrations were not only harmonious with the text and helpful in understanding it better but were also quite inspiring.\\\\\Qazvini, an Iranian born in Gazvin in 1205/06, wrote the Wonders of Creation in Arabic and it is said that he sent the Farsi version, which no longer exists, to Shams al-din-e Jovayni, the chief official of the court of Halaku and Abaga. But the book was translated into Farsi during the Qajar period and was lithograph-printed several times in India and three times in Iran. The Wonders of Creation is a book of ontology with various chapters on astronomy, biology, and other creations in the universe. Beside the known beings, the author discusses some of legendary creatures with most the peculiar shapes found on earth and in the sea. For instance, he talks about a tree known az he Vaqvag tree, found on an island of the same name; its fruits are the heads of animals and these make certain sound, understood only by the inhabitants of that island, or those of another remote island whose inhabitants have bodies similar to those of humans but with heads like those of various animals. Qazvini, with utmost sincerity, refers to the sources of his entries and whenever he finds the subject unreal or dubious he uses the phrase “Vallaho A`alam� 9only Dod Knows)the Wonders of Creation in its own time was like an encyclopedia of ontology. Although many of its entries are mixed with legends, it should be remembered that in those days this was customary and, although the legendary parts of the entries diminished the scientific section. While reading some of the entries of the book, I found some of them very familiar, because these were told to us as children by grownups.\\\\\The illustrations that accompany the entries are most helpful for understanding the subjects. Although the artist has tried to be faithful to the stories, his own understanding and imagination are also noteworthy.\\\\\Despite my immense admiration for the book of Qazvini, I have to confess that the paintings of the present book have nothing to do with any OF Qazvini`s subjects, nor his painters. The idea of Qazvini- especially his title- however , was of a great inspiration to me. The beautiful manuscript folios from the Friday Bazaar of Tehran were to me too good to be lost. I wanted to have a share with their creators. After going through the folios, I separated the manuscript folios from the lithograph-printed pages, illustrated by an unknown artist.\\\\\These latter pages were from an illustrated book of the Golestan by Saedi the seventh-century Iranian poet (1182-1283/1291?).\\\\\On the lithograph-printed pages, I kept the main personages of the illustrations and covered the background landscapes with some of my own subjects. These subjects varied: some are colored drawings of my own sculptures and some are of my favorite subjects, such as the cage, the bird, the lion, or the hand.\\\\\On the manuscript folios, however, the concept was different.\\\\\Here, on the beautiful folios of calligraphic pages, I painted only my own subjects. In other words,\\\\\I tried to take part and collaborate with their creators, centuries after their deaths, fully ignoring the meaning of their writing. The beauty of their calligraphy was of such quality that I cared little about the meaning of their words.\\\\\The winters of Vancouver and their long night were another impetus for these series.\\\\\I must admit,the time I spent on these paintings were some of the most joyous times of my life. The idea of collaborating with the artists of the past in a quiet corner was an experience different from the hours I spent in the noisy space of my sculpture studio.
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MAN & BIRD 1 22x16 cm Gouache on lithograph PRINT 1999
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002
Fereydoun ave 1945
The Aesthetic of the fereydoun is fusion of ancient and modern, of east and west, of comic strip and myth. \\\\\ His figures are always tangled whit each other in an effort to survive and prove, accompanied by an erotic isolation.\\\\\ Miniature is a combination of script and figure. This easy recipe inspired Fereydoun to make his Persian miniatures of today: wrestlers in front of flower bouquets accompanied by the calligraphic caption, alternatives
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for figures and script. \\\\\ His uncanny figures are hard to interpret: either they are erotic miniatures or a warrior’s scene. His obscenity of war or of eroticism or of any dissonance becomes poetic by the shadowy lights, watercolor effects and motion. Fereydoun perverts every scene into an archetypal miniature.
GOSHTASB-FROM SHAHNAMEH HEROS 70x50 cm PHOTOGRAPHY & COLLAGE 2006
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003
Farah Ossouli 1953
Poetry reigns supreme in Persian culture and it has been essential to my life since I was a teenager. All my Ars Poetica paintings have quotes from contemporary Iranian poems by Ahmad Shamloo or Forough Farrokhzad, even in compositions that reference famous images by Frida Kahlo, Francisco Goya, Peter Paul Rubens, Fra Angelico, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Reza Abassi, Jean-LĂŠon GĂŠrome, and Leonardo da Vinci. The hand-written poems lend rhythm and symbolic meaning to the visual syntheses that I present within elaborate borders and in the style of Persian Safavid miniatures. \\\\\ The dialectic in Ars Poetica contains Eastern and Western art, old and contemporary references to highlight the state of women in regions of conflict. \\\\\ The overriding theme in my Ars Poetica is that appearances may be deceptive of u n d e rly i n g
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realities as seen in packaged news and sanitized media. My intense insistence on intricacy and beauty serves to attract and draw the viewer in as a witness to disconcerting events that are either about to happen or have already happened. The contrast between surface beauty and serenity and lurking violence also exists in traditional miniatures, but in Ars Poetica, they reflect the tension and conflict I feel about the gap between appearance and reality in the country, the region, and the world I live in. Internet and satellite images connect us instantaneously to many things around the world. It does not matter where we are located geographically. News and images travel quickly. We witness upsetting events live on TV or on the web. As a viewer, I experience a dialogue in my head in which I am alternatively judge, prosecutor, witness, and defendant. These images stay with me and become a source of
pressure and anxiety. I process them through my personal filters into my work. \\\\\ My style evolved over three decades as I sought my authentic selfexpression. The figurative, decorative, and narrative style of Persian miniatures provided me with expressive potential and a rich tradition of refined beauty. Moreover, I found the impassive look of miniature figures suitable for my male and female protagonists engaged in universal themes. In Ars Poetica, I selected famous artistic icons, because of some concept I liked, and then added my ideas and style of painting. I also made use of all three traditional characteristics of Persian miniatures - calligraphy, Tazhib (the decorative arts and book illuminations), and painting. In Ars Poetica, however, they are infused with new features, such as contemporary Farsi poems, Tazhib designs with weapons, and new painted themes.
REZA AHMADI & I 76x56 cm GOUACHE ON ARCHE PAPER 2012
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004
Farshid Mesghali 1943
I wanted to utilize miniature as a source of inspiration, but in the world of sculpture and installation. For the representation of an Iranian garden, I had to search and find an event that could only occur in an Iranian garden; a love affair in an Iranian garden: Shirin and Farhad - a love story of Persian origin, which appears in the Book of Kings as well as in other classics of Persian literature. \\\\\ I remembered beautiful gardens displayed in miniature paintings. Then I was sure that still remains my favourite medium these days and I use then as a source of ideas in my sculptures.This attraction perhaps has to do with my growing up in Isfahan, in close proximity to handicrafts and traditional art forms. One could not pass Chahar Bagh Avenue without noticing the variety of handicraft shops produced for tourists - miniatures, and enamel works. My high school was right behind Ali Qapu Palace, and I used to spent most of my time in Naqsh-e Jahan Square. As time went by, not only the miniature has not lost its appeal for me, but in each period I have developed new appreciations for it; for its timelessness, motionlessness, and display of pure beauty without attention to subject matter is magical to me. In our traditional miniature, everything is archetypal, and life in its normal state is absolutely absent, and thus there is magic running beneath its surface. The miniatures that I really admire have been produced between 1395- 1450 AD and referred to as the Teymurid Art or the Herat School. When I take on a new project, first I usually look at some books, and I am mostly drawn to books with miniatures from this period.You can see in them, armies lined up in opposition, and perhaps it is the battle of good and evil, but there is no sign of bloodshed, no terror; only beauty, finding an excuse to manifest there, and I can’t take my eyes off this beauty.
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HORSE RIDER 80x80x25 cm METAL STRUCTURE,FABRIC, PLASTER & ACRYLIC PAINT 2008
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005
Gizella Varga Sinai
1944
In my youth I always admired oriental miniatures. In my homeland, Hungary, Turkish miniatures, which spread during the Ottoman era, are famous and can be traced in our culture up to the present after my arrival in Iran. My admiration grew even greater as I saw frescoes in the palace of forty columns (Chehel Sotoon) and in the King1s Palace (Ali Qapu) in Isfahan. \\\\\ The themes in my work are mainly about mythology and these faded frescoes inspired me for a new series: images and walls. Since that time, I often returned to this theme. \\\\\ Reza Abbasi`s miniatures were influenced by the Renaissance painters in Europe, and perhaps that was the reason that they fascinated me so. In addition to the painters of the Renaissance, I was also strongly influences by the great Italian painter Giotto. Something inside me knew and wanted to explore this link between Eastern and Western paintings. \\\\\ Reza Abbasi had
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chosen smaller formats for his frescoes, in order to offer more possibilities for the development of the various ornaments and architecture, harmony and uniformity in the buildings. \\\\\ These frescoes in the palaces, the wonderful pavilions in the garden filled with paintings, ornaments, and mirrors become ideal themes for me. One can see in them the faded gardens of paradise with flowers, trees, and beautiful people in eternal youth, sitting, playing music loving and enjoying themselves in their idyllic world. \\\\\ As a painter, I could follow my fantasies and moods to shape new images, destroy, blur, or fade them, and thereby demonstrate my ides of paradise lost. \\\\\ Despite their decay through passage of time, we still revere these pale and effaced images today, and in forsaken wild gardens, in the form of a bird flying by, or in a wild flower, we glimpse paradise every now and again. \\\\\ It seems that despite the fact that mankind is on an eternal quest to move forward, there is always in us a desire and yearning to return to paradise lost long ago
MEMORY FROM THE WALL SERIES 120x90 cm | 120x100 cm | 120x90 cm ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 2005 (DETAIL)
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006
Avish Khebrehzadeh
1969
This triptych is part of series that I have been working on to explore the “mask” and its role in a manipulated transformation of our own image. As part of the research for these works I came across the word “Maskhara” (the Arabic source of the word mask) which is used as “ridiculous” in modern Farsi language. This particular set of drawings focus on the latter definition of the word “Maskhara” rather than that of the “mask” itself.
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MASKHARA TRIPTYCH EACH PANEL 35x54 cm MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER 2013 (DETAIL)
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007
Farshid maleki 1943
A literary or artistic work should primarily make impact on its cultural and geographical environment. \\\\\ Through this passage, the work can find its own way in global community.
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UNTITLED 70x100 cm MARKER ON CARDBORAD 2011
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008
Parastou Forouhar 1962
... At first glance, you see the beautiful pattern and think you have understood it. And then you get closer and realize it is completely different. The viewer is thrown back on himself and is forced to re-evaluate his perception‌ \\\\\ The title Tausendundein Tag (A Thousand and One Days) sets the scene in the orient. A Thousand and One Nights immediately spring to mind. But here, they are dragged into the harsh light off day. Just as torture claims to bring the truth
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"to light". The fairytale itself has a violent undercurrent. The king, deceived by his wife, has his consorts put to death after one night in bed together to ensure that they are faithful to him. Only Sheherazade is sharp-witted enough to escape such a fate: night after night, she captivates the king with an exciting story which she breaks off as day begins to dawn, leaving the king longing to hear the end. In Forouhar’s work, the beautiful nighttime dream that lasts until morning is transformed into a very rude awakening indeed. Media images of public executions cast a dark shadow on the realm of fairytales. \\\\\ Alexandra Karentzos
ONE THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS 55x35 cm DIGITAL PRINT ON HAHNEMÜHLE PAPER EDITION OF 7 2012
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009
Mehrdad Afsari
1977
The digital revolution in photography can we attributed to an inventory of various feedbacks to this extensive medium. Digital technology has virtualized the world, thereby helping it experience novelties of forms. Manufacturers of digital cameras maneuvered over precise representation of details and better de-pixilation as an indispensable part of their promotion. To me, however, it meant a visual event that has invariably kept me thinking of its potential. The Shahnama (The book of kings) of Shah-Tahmasb (hotan) is one of the eminent artworks of the land of Persia. A dominant feature of Iranian painting is its intuitiveness and subjectivity. The Iranian artist exploits all the gifts of nature; human, plant, soil, and rock. Yet, he never attempts objective reconstruction and visual manifestation. Conversely enough, he discovers, through his mind, the nature, human and ambience, and interprets the thematic content and finally renders an exclusive representation. Meanwhile, this conceptual image is painted by minute details. \\\\\ In 2004, for the first time ever, an exhibition of such proverbial artworks was held in the Museum for Contemporary Art. When I had my first visit to the sublime Iranian art, what attracted me most was the magnifiers at the ingress to the museum which implied that
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much of the nuances and graces of the works were not visible to the naked eye: the composition of designs and colors masterfully juxtaposed. In my perspective, an artist lives in the moment and brings it to being, is inspired by the past and his art flows into future. What interested me above all, was the contrast engendered by the photographs: the intuitive aspect of paintings was also manifesting otherwise in the digital world-the improvisations that worked out in there. How is it that the works whose importance lay in their inherent miniaturized graces and vignettes are now transformed via pixels (a novel visual potential of multilayered meanings) in the digital world. This was in fact a quest of different feedbacks for the past and a revelation of the art of my homeland, Iran.
HOW THE FRENZIED HEART OF MINE, HOUSES THE PASSIONATE COUNTENANCE OF THINE 100x100 cm C PRINT ON PROFESSIONAL PHOTO PAPER EDITION 7 + A.P 2008
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010
Shahriar Ahmadi 1979
"The work on the series Kiss, started three years ago as a continuation to Archaic Techniques of Lovemaking in which I portrayed different kinds of love and lovemaking. From that, I have taken a specific part of love- making, the one that represents the complex and abstract nature of Eros and focuses mainly on the inner and intimate qualities of kissing. Questions such as how one kiss-
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es and with what intention, be it a true or deceitful one, made me ponder about the fact that each kiss is different and by illustrating the other, the unique taste of each kiss is further stressed. \\\\\ Being inspired by mystic Persian poetry, namely those of Hafiz and Sa’di, I’ve chosen verses for these paintings that focus on kissing and the loyalty, or more specifically, the lack of loyalty of the lover.
In Hafiz, the kiss is comparable to the provisions of a journey, essential and deserving. In Sa’di, the impurity of the lover who on the surface is very intimate once again goes back to the reoccur- ring theme of friend and foe in my work as depicted in Miraj and ultimately the fact that all that matters at the end is love."
UNTITLED FROM THE KISS SERIES 95x60 cm ACRYLIC, PENCIL, GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS 2012
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011
Iman Safaei 1982
The Red Tragedy \\\\\ Centuries ago, life, according to the Kings of the time in the Shahnameh, was narrated and pictured either as an extravagant spree or a sense of civilization. \\\\\ Now, "I" recite existence in my own variation and the fantasies of today’s life. Varieties, such as heads, hands, swords, shields, daggers, horses, snakes, humans, love, wars, all the legacy of centuries ago, which have been inherited by us, now, like a puzzle, offer a new implication. \\\\\ A significance in these puzzles that is consistent to the new age; the implications of which I believe have and will always be the same: love, life, death, humanity, war, hands, swords, snakes, horses and colors‌ \\\\\ Are colors, like Red, the sign of love or blood? It has always been my interest to know has there been a limitation for Red or a sign of infinity. My imagination draws my attention to, is there a red pool, river or ocean? Water? A sign of existence? Blood? Love?
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THE RED MAN FROM THE RED TRAGEDY SERIES 151x113.5 cm C PRINT AND DIASEC EDITION OF 3 + A.P 2013
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012
Shahpour Pouyan 1979
Persian miniatures are located at the intersection of power, wealth and beauty. Commissioning an illustrated book was historically an aesthetic project in itself, which, in times, exceeded the reign or even the life of the commissioning prince or the artist: whether the life was discontinued or the political power, the beauty could still have been accomplished with the support of a surrogate. It was to support a narrative that outlasted individuals. As such, the miniature was not an illustration of the wealth of the commissioner: it was a treasure in itself that would be passed onto inheritors. Commissioning the illustration of a book was also the act of exercising visual power: similar to translating stories or rewriting them in poetry, illustrating them was to allow them entry to the realm of the visual, particularly in a world where manmade images were rare. The power to expose and show is also a power to leave out and hide: my current series of works attempts at recovering what is left unseen in these miniatures. \\\\\ So much
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has been said of the presence of man in Persian miniatures: that the absence of landscape shows a particular interest in man, that through the removal of perspective, a more egalitarian distribution of figures in the picture is made possible thus each figure is provided with its unique space, etc. Yet, the socio-political context of these miniatures does not fit the claim. It says something rather different: it is the story of the superiority of tradition and patterns of life over the individual. \\\\\ If these miniatures pertain to the past and are subjected to historical studies, a similar aesthetic authority is still at work in the same geography. Beautification of power and aestheticization of certain narratives, this time turbocharged by the powers of new media, supports a particular understanding of man. A certain distribution of the sensible provides each individual with a specific space within the socio-political context. If in the miniatures, the man is present to depict a pre-determined story, the ideological power today carves the subject into a pre-established context. \\\\\ By removal of figures, I wish to have exposed the void camouflaged by the aesthetics of these miniatures: the lack and the sublime camouflaged by the beautiful. By disrupting the apparent perfect interlocking of the subject and the context, the context itself comes to the front, in all its details, beauty and authority. The printed reproductions are delicately detached from photography paper and a resulting thin film marred by wrinkles is later mounted on cardboard papers, thus giving a forged authenticity
to the manipulated illustration of a mythical rendering of a lost reality. The horror evoked by these images reveals the terror already present in the miniatures concealed by the presence of similar sized figures. They are possible landscapes never painted, fabricated documents of a real world hidden behind a constructed narration, illustrating the possibility of narratives never realized or illustrated. In this respect, they also connect to my previous projects in which desertedness predominated, including the abandoned forged phallic historical towers in deserted landscapes.
COMBAT OF SOHRAB AGAINST ROSTAM 42.5x28 cm PHOTOGRAPHYIC EMULSION ON PAPER BOARD 2008
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013
Yashar samimi mofakham
1979
These works, part of a larger series called "The Bolster", are based on a short story written by the artist, which is a monologue performed by the head of a brothel, speaking to a young prostitute. Now that she is an old woman, telling the young girl that after all coming and goings in this house, after a hundred times that I fell in Love, now I know, the only thing that I've got after all these years is my Bolster which I can hug truly during the nights in my loneliness. \\\\\ The rhyme and the style of the text is based on Quajar period’s literature but the context and the concept of both text and the illustrations is referring to the contemporary thoughts on the situations of women as a part of a bigger society, Iran. \\\\\ Calligraphies in the works are some ballads from some love stories in Persian litrature. The words "Love", "Birds", "Hugging", "Kissing", "Touching" and some other words are the most used words in this scripts. In these works they perform a dual meaning of both erotism and love as a sacred matter.
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UNTITLED FROM THE BOLSTER SERIES 50x50 cm MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER (HAND COLORED INTAGLIO PRINT ON PAPER) 2009
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014
Safaeddin emami 1981
What would have happened if, at the time of Shah Tahmasb, when wars began, the superheroes of American companies where born to fight in those battlefields? \\\\\ Would it have had a great effect on their triumph? Or would these superheroes have rescued the heroes of these miniature soldiers? \\\\\ Maybe the answer to these questions goes back to the strong influence of American heroes who have an imaginative hold on the world. \\\\\ Superheroes become materialistic, in my view; these are characters whom I fantasize to become. \\\\\ Power- an extraordinary and peculiar feeling- and a logic which doesn’t exist, and in my self-awareness, a realistic and historic phenomenon will occur. \\\\\ Therefore, within the set of the upcoming series, you will find superheroes in the battlefields fighting with all their might along side these miniature soldiers.
The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp (r. 152476), also known as the Shahnama-yi Shahi, is arguably the most luxuriously illustrated copy of Firdausi's epic ever produced in the history of Persian painting (1970.301.21). Its pages, with outstanding measurements for an illustrated book (approximately 48x32 cm), are made of fine paper enriched with large gold-sprinkled borders and lavish illuminations. Accompanying the 759 folios of text, written in superb nasta'liq script, are 258 paintings of exquisite quality and artistic originality. This project was realized at the royal atelier in Tabriz, the first capital of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736), and involved two generations of the most renowned artists of the time. Among them were Sultan Muhammad, Mir Musavvir, and Aqa Mirak, who succeeded each other as directors of the project through the years. Scholars still disagree about the actual dates of execution of the manuscript. It was begun around the early 1520s, probably under Shah Isma'il (r. 1501-24), the founder of the dynasty, and carried out for at least another twenty years under Shah Tahmasp, the manuscript's dedicatee and principal sponsor. Francesca Leoni Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
A superhero (sometimes rendered superhero or super hero) is a type of stock character possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers" and dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1933, stories of superheroes - ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing yearslong sagas - have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other media. The word itself dates to at least 1917. "SUPER HEROES" is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
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THE BATTLE OF PASHAN BEGINS FROM THE MARVELOUS BATTLES SERIES 160x130 cm SILK SCREEN ON CANVAS EDITION OF 3 + A.P 2013
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farnaz rabieijah 1981
Shirin was the princes of Aaran region and wife of the Sassanid Persian King, Khosrau II. \\\\\ Long after her death, Shrin became an important heroine of Persian literature, as a model of a faithful lover and wife. She appears in the Shahnameh and the
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romance Khosrow and Shirin by Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209) and is one of the main subjects in most miniatures. Her elaborated story in literature bears little or no resemblance to the fairly few known historical facts of her life, although her difficulties after the assassination of her husband remain part of the story, as well as Khosrow's exile before he regained his throne. After Khosrow's son kills him, he demands that Shirin marry him, which she commits suicide to avoid. \\\\\ One of the most famous Iranian heroines in 21st century is “Shirin Neshat� who is an avant-garde visual artist and her movements are leading. Now she can be the heroine of contemporary miniatures.
SWEET "SHIRIN" 60x22x23 cm BRONZE & CERAMIC EDITION OF 3 + A.P (COLOR & LETTER VARIATION IN EDITIONS) 2013
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Tarlan rafiee
1980
Puberty has a dual meaning in Iranian tradition, on the one hand there is a precious treasure which has to be claimed by only one man, who is the first and the last one in a woman’s life, and on the other hand, is something prohibited by traditions and taboos which can not even talk about it. By evolution of the society these meanings are
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changing so fast, now puberty and sex means something different, especially in young generation, it is precious that it should be a personal treasure; it is something that belongs to a women about which to make a decision. \\\\\ and this is a note by Doc. John Phillips about this series: \\\\\ Tarlan Rafiee celebrates the spirit of the female, confronting restrictions on women within Iranian society . In this series of gold leafed digital prints or “treasures� she explores the changing meaning of puberty and sex in contemporary Iranian society. \\\\\ Treasure series, year: 2011
UNTITLED 5 FROM THE TREASURE SERIES 30x30 cm MIXED MEDIA 2011
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Shirin Art Gallery NY “My Name is not Rouge” Modern and contemporary miniature Curator Ali Bakhtiari Gallery Director Nina Mercer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the compiler and the publication. © Shirin Gallery NY
Art Director Iman Safaei Design & Production Dabestanstudio.com Graphic Designers Iman Safaei Bahareh Jafari Kiyan Forootan Translation Armin Maleki Photo Pages 11-21-23-31 Amirhossein Biparva With Special thanks to Farah Amin Nader Tavakolian Nasrin Tavakolian Beheshti Rozita Sharafjahan (Azad Art Gallery) Heidi & Franz Leupi (AB Gallery) Shokoufeh Nazemian Ali Khadra (Canvas Magazine) Myrna Ayad (Canvas Magazine) Bahar Tavakolian Hedieh Javanshir Iilchi Sureyya Willie (Artnet) Hengameh Moameri (Homa Art Gallery) Patrice Farameh Arsalan Mohammad (Harper Bazar Art) Shirley Elghanian (Magic of Persia) Diana Khalatbari (Popli Khalatbari Charity
Foundation)
Sonja Hofstetter