So, I have this little counter thing on my blog, and it doesn’t tell me much. What it does tell me though, is the kinds of search terms people use to find my blog. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of hits from the search “Qajar women with flowers.” I think they’re looking for these—photographs that have flowers superimposed onto them to create a layered/textured feel. They’re by Bahman Jalali, a famous Iranian photographer who passed away in 2010.
A QAJAR BEAUTY PLAYING A LUTE, IRAN, 19TH CENTURY
Oil on canvas, seated on a carpet with a cat sat beside her — 59.3in. (150.8cm.) x 39¾in. (101cm.)
So, not all women had mustaches. Just FYI.
The Slavs and the Tartars are hilarious and I’m so excited to hear them speak.
I’m really really really excited for this panel.
Slavs and Tartars @ The IAAB Conference
The critically-acclaimed Slavs and Tartars Arts Collective will join us at The IAAB Conference, Oct 13-14, 2012 @ UCLA. Founded in 2005, the group addresses a shared sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians. In their own words, Slavs and Tatars is a collective and “a faction of polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia.”
Check out their recent article in the New York Review of Books about Molla Nasreddin.
Join the conversation at The IAAB Conference. Online pre-registration is now open and space is limited - register today to receive early bird discounts! We are also pleased to offer group rates at an additional discount for students! If you are interested in registering a group of 8+, email us at conference@iranianalliances.org.
I have used computer technology as a kind of time machine to update my family album, to lend it more color and life, to renovate and revive it.
By the use of anachronisms such as collaging modern stamps on the clothes of some of my ancestors, and by inventing backgrounds that are obviously out of context with them, my aim was to see them in a new light and to transplant them into a different time, a different place.
Why I don’t like Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat, a prominent Iranian artist, knows how to create a gripping image, and my critique of her work has nothing to do with the visual quality of her art. Rather, I have an issue with the implications of her work. It seems like her artistic career is built around the statement “Iranian women are miserable.” And her message isn’t a nuanced one.
She has two bodies of work that I specifically take issue with. First, her photography collection titled Women of Allah. Second, her movie rendition of Women Without Men.
1) Ironically, Women of Allah initially drew me to Shirin Neshat’s work. The images are really quite beautiful, until you begin to consider each one individually. Chador clad women, calligraphy, rifles. And they’re beautiful images, but why the guns? Why are these women the women of Allah? The guns are a recurring prop in the series—why?
I can’t appreciate a work that links Islam and violence like that. A work that implies that the women of Allah are the ones who wear black and bear arms. It’s fine to want some dialogue on gender/fundamentalism/religion, etc, but at least be nuanced in your approach.
2) As for Women Without Men, she completely ruined the Shahrnush Parsipur’s book. I know all movies based on books depart from the original plot, but Shirin Neshat abused her creative license in this film. She just came up with something totally different. I’m honestly surprised that Parsipur even agreed to play a small role in Neshat’s film.
Plus, the same problematic approach to Islam crops up in the movie. Like her photography, though, the movie is visually quite stunning.
If you’ve seen Neshat’s Women Without Men, read Parsipur’s book. If you haven’t seen it, read Parsipur’s book. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just read the book. It’s called…wait for it…Women Without Men. And it’s good. You’ll finish it in a sitting.
Henri Matisse. The Algerian Woman. 1909. Oil on canvas. Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
The depiction of the Middle East has, since Edward Said’s Orientalism, often been approached in binary terms and in the framework of “power/knowledge” in the tradition of Friedrich Nietzche and Michel Foucault.
There is, however, an argument to be made for the Middle East as an influence on European modernity, not just the other way around. When one moves away from politics and economics to culture, power/knowledge becomes more ambiguous. People have multiple identities, and appropriate from various sources, and are changed by their influences. Goethe was clearly deeply changed by his encounter with the Persian poet Hafez, something that Said’s approach kept him from seeing.
French painter Henri Matisse, who came to prominence as a post-expressionist and then leader of a school called Fauvism (which rejected Picasso’s cubism), was deeply influenced by Japanese painting, as well as by his experiences in North Africa. Some of his famed striving for serenity probably has at least implicit roots in the Sufism and Buddhism of his influences. European Modernism is often treated as a European phenomenon, but it was global, and Africa and Asia played big roles in it.
Here you go.
Some of it might also be due during the Mongol invasion?
ah, I though those arts were made during the time of mughals/changiz khan in Persia.
Yes, you’re both totally right. The explanation I posted says “transmitted through Central Asia.” That’s a reference to the Mongol invasions of Iran in the thirteenth century. Originally, it’s a stylistically Chinese influence, which is why the article cites it as such.
Q
Anonymous asked:
Would you tell us why in some of the paintings they draw persians/iranians with eastern asian resemblance?
A
Disclaimer: I am by no means an art historian; I just really enjoy art. So, to answer your question, imma refer you to Wikipedia’s article on Persian miniatures:
Much of the Chinese influence in Persian art is probably indirect, transmitted through Central Asia. There appear to be no Persian miniatures that are clearly the work of a Chinese artist or one trained in China itself…The format and composition of the Persian miniature received strong influence from Chinese paintings.
