WITH 1979's Islamic revolution in Iran, that society experienced profound changes as the Pehlavi regime gave way to Wilayat-i-Faqih, or guardianship of the juris-consult. Changes were experienced in every section of national life and the arts, including the visual arts, were no exception.

Dr Hamid Kashmirshekan, a Tehran-based Iranian scholar and art historian, who was recently in Karachi to deliver a paper on 'Hybridism contextualization of contemporary Iranian art in the early 21st century' at an art seminar, sat down with Dawn for a chat about his activities and the changes Iranian art experienced after the revolution.

“I did my first degree in Tehran in fine arts and then went to London, did my post-graduate degree in print-making and my PhD in art history from SOAS, University of London. I'm also a visiting associate at Oxford University and teach in Tehran. I used to be an artist but nowadays I'm more of an art critic or art historian,” he said.

As for the changes in Iranian art after the revolution “There were three different periods after the revolution. The first was from 1979 till the end of the (Iran-Iraq) war. This was the period when revolutionary Islamic art dominated. It was against any sort of modernism which belonged to the previous regime. That art was sort of socialist-realist, which could convey the message very easily to the masses.

“It was very similar to other revolutionary art of the 20th century like Mexican art or Soviet art. They were all forms of socialist reVisitors' Log

alism. Even though the revolution in Iran was Islamic, the art produced by revolutionary artists was not Islamic at all; it was quite socialist,” he commented.

Dr Kashmirshekan said that after the bloody Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Iranian art started to move away from purely religious subject matter.

“After the war ended Iranian society started to experience the post-revolutionary period in art and culture. I think modernism in general and modern art was revived in that period. Non-religious and non-revolutionary art started to develop in the late eighties and particularly in the early 1990s. There were formal exhibitions such as biennials and national exhibitions. There were discussions about cultural identity and artistic identity, Islam as an integral part of that identity and perhaps mixing with some contemporary styles, and about modes of presentation in art.

“You had to be different from the West, but at the same time you had to be modern and contemporary to relate to contemporary art,” said the scholar.

But perhaps the greatest impetus to Iranian art came with the election of Mohammad Khatami to the Iranian presidency in 1997, ushering in what is known as the 'reformist' era.

“In 1997, when the reform period started, this was when the third phase of Iranian art began. Between 1997 to 2005, a huge development happened in contemporary Iranian art, specially regarding the connection with the outside world, with exhibitions of Iranian artists outside Iran. This was a new phenomenon.

“A museum of contemporary art in Tehran - which was established in 1978, a year before the revolution, which had become a place mostly for the exhibition of revolutionary art - became the centre for the promotion of contemporary art, especially conceptual art. It started to support artists with holding exhibitions, conferences, seminars, on contemporary art issues and things like that.

“Since then Iranian art changed fundamentally. It began to have a close relationship with the outside world. Though after the 2005 elections things changed. There was no encouragement for making close connections with the outside world, especially the West,” he said.

Interestingly, Dr Kashmirshekan told this writer that today, the market for Iranian art internationally was booming, especially in the West and at such art forums as Art Dubai. Also, he said that the study of calligraphy was very popular with the masses in Iran, with thousands of students studying the classical art-form.—QAM