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A cursory glance at the history ofmodern andcontemporary art inIran, the social and political developments starting in the 1940s which radically altered the evolution of this country's visual arts.
The modernart movement in Iran had its genesis in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This was the period after the death of famous Persian painter,Kamal-ol-molk (1852–1940) and thus symbolically the end of a rigid adherence to academic painting.[1]
The College of Fine Arts atTehran University, founded on the model of theBeaux-Arts de Paris and directed byAndré Godard, served as an important place for students interested in modern art, by proposing a radically different teaching style from that of Kamal-ol-Molk, encouraging original creation rather than copying international masters although the lack of qualified teachers was holding back this development.[1][2]
The 1949 opening of theApadana gallery inTehran by Mahmoud Javadipour and other colleagues, and the emergence of artists likeMarcos Grigorian in the 1950s, signaled a commitment to the creation of a form of modern art grounded in Iran. Grigorian found influence for his art in popular Iranian culture, specifically a coffee-house storyteller culture and the visual language of dry earth and mud.[1]
One of Grigorian's students at the College of Decorative Arts (nowTehran University of Art) wasHossein Zenderoudi, who under the influence ofParviz Tanavoli, was interested in the forms and aesthetics of objects made forShi'a Islam worship.[1] The scholarKarim Emami likened his art and his teacher, Tanavoli, to the kind of objects found in saqqakhanas, coining term, the "Saqqakhaneh school".[1][3]
He also won an honorary diploma in handicrafts from Bangalore, India, from the Asian Cultural Exchange. His oil paintings have been exhibited in the Exhibition at the Persepolis Gallery at the Shiraz Art Festival.[4][5]
In the 1950 and 1960s, a new subgenre of Iranian art called theSaqqakhaneh school (also known as Saqqā-ḵāna, Saqqa-khaneh, Saqakhaneh, Sahakhanah) was pioneered by artistsParviz Tanavoli,Hossein Zenderoudi,Faramarz Pilaram,Massoud Arabshahi,Mansoor Ghandriz,Nasser Ovissi,Sadegh Tabrizi andJazeh Tabatabai.[6][7] Artists associated with Saqqakhaneh successfully combined western art stylistic traditions and local symbols includingcalligraphy, zodiac signs, astrolabes, amulets and talismans in order to devise a distinctly local visual language.[8] Religious motifs, such as the hand or a bowl, also featured prominently in Saqqakhaneh works.
Saqqakhaneh school is a movement ofneo-traditional modern art that is found in Iran, rooted in a history of coffee-house paintings andShiʿite Islam visual elements.[9][10][11] The word Saqqakhaneh originally referred to a type of water-fountain shrine found locally, and came to represent a movement characterised heavily by symbolism. Other motifs found throughout the region were incorporated into the artistic movement – the hand being a prime example.[12][10]In scholar Karim Emami's articles on “Saqqā-ḵāna Paintings,” he defined in which a, "combined religious imagery and traditional decorative elements with modern painting techniques, played a significant role in drawing the attention of the media and art connoisseurs to the genre".[3] A visual language was created by drawing on the history of the Shi'a Islamic culture, specifically the saqqakhana, a small public area in which water is given to strangers often decorated with symbols and offerings.[13] The artists of this genre were re-appropriating these symbolic traditions associated with the saqqakhana but with amodernist stance.[13]
By the late 1960s into the 1970s he Saqqakhaneh school artists of Iran had international prominence and this helped pave the way for the opening of theTehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 1977.[14] The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art boasting an important collection of both Western and Iranian artists.[14] The Iranian revolution by 1979 halted the dynamics of the Iranian arts scene.[14]
It has been debated by various scholars after the publication ofEdward Said's 1978 bookOrientalism (which posed similar questions), was the Saqqakhaneh movement affected by thepostcolonial view of Iran or rather, did it intensifyOrientalism.[15][16]
In 2013,Layla S. Diba andFereshteh Daftari co-curated the exhibition,Iran Modern (2013) shown at theAsia Society in New York City. The exhibition was the first major exhibition of modern art from Iran, featuring 26 artists which includedAhmad Aali, Abbas,Massoud Arabshahi,Siah Armajani,Mohammad Ehsai,Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian,Mansour Ghandriz,Marcos Grigorian,Ghasem Hajizadeh,Nahid Hagigat,Bahman Jalali,Rana Javadi,Reza Mafi,Leyly Matine-Daftary,Ardeshir Mohassess,Bahman Mohassess,Nicky Nodjoumi,Houshang Pezeshknia,Faramarz Pilaram,Behjat Sadr,Abolghassem Saidi,Sohrab Sepehri,Parviz Tanavoli,Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam,Manoucher Yektai, andHossein Zenderoudi.[17] The exhibition was divided into sections including Saqqakhaneh andneotraditional art styles influenced by folk art history, abstract art, and calligraphy.[17]
Saqqakhaneh artists’ fascination with signs and talismans has recently moved beyond avantgarde art and found its way into women's fashion where its motifs are used in scarves, shawls, shirts and the like.[18]
Art movements, such as Saqqakhaneh, were significant precursors to the school of calligraphic painting. In Iran, the calligraphic art movement was known as Naqqashi-Katt (or Naqqashikatt).[19] It was one of a number of art movements that emerged across theMiddle East in the mid-20th century.[20] Although these groups of artists emerged independently across North Africa and the Middle East, the common thread was that each searched for ways to integrate tradition and modernity in a way that would contribute to a distinctive local visual language.[20][21][22] Each of these groups went by a different labels at the local level.[21]
In Jordan, the movement emerged in the 1950s and was known asHurufiyya[23][21] while in Iraq, the movement was known asAl-Bu'd al-Wahad (One Dimension Group).[22] The movement was known as the Old Khartoum School in Sudan, where artists rejected Western art traditions and focused on Islamic calligraphy, West African motifs and local traditions in the pursuit of indigenous compositions.[24]
Although photography was introduced to Iran in the mid-19th century during theQajar era, it was not until the late 20th century that it became widely recognized as a legitimate and expressive medium within Persian visual arts.[25][26] The development of artistic photography in Iran has reflected the country’s complex social, political, and cultural transitions, evolving from traditional documentary styles into more experimental and conceptual practices.[27]
In the post-revolution era after 1979, a new wave of Iranian photographers began to explore themes such as identity, gender, censorship, tradition versus modernity, and emotional introspection. Artistic photography became a powerful tool to navigate and reflect upon contemporary Iranian life, often marked by symbolic imagery, minimalistic aesthetics, and poetic ambiguity.[27]
Among the most internationally acclaimed figures isShadi Ghadirian, whose seriesQajar andLike Every Day comment on the status of women by juxtaposing traditional imagery with modern objects.[28]Newsha Tavakolian blends photojournalism with staged documentary forms to portray youth, resistance, and emotional life in Iran.[29] Another emerging conceptual photographer, Mahdiyeh Afshar Bakeshloo, focuses on inner emotional states such as solitude, grief, and ambiguity through stark black-and-white compositions that blend the human form with everyday objects.[30]
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