Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution [Paperback]

Shiva Balaghi (Author), Lynn Gumpert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1860648835 | ISBN-13: 978-1860648830 | Publication Date: February 22, 2003

This book assesses modern Iranian visual culture from the 1960’s and 1970’s and suggests that modernity in Iran was a creative, complex, and contested process. It examines the expression of Iranian modernity in a variety of media including painting and sculpture, photography, posters, and graphic arts. It highlights new modes of artistic production and the expanding scene in Iran: developments in Iranian art criticism, exhibition apparatus, education, and patronage. The contributors also address changes in the iconography of Iranian art and in the increasingly social role of the artist. This groundbreaking work demonstrates that the visual arts serve as an important archival record of a critical period in Iranian history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shiva Balaghi is an art historian and assistant professor, and Lynn Gumpert is Director of the Grey Art Gallery, both at New York University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (February 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860648835
• ISBN-13: 978-1860648830
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shiva Balaghi is a historian of the Middle East. She is an International Humanities Fellow at the Cogut Center of Brown University, where she teaches history and art history. She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan. Balaghi has taught at the University of Vermont, NYU, and U-M. She tweets on the Middle East, with an emphasis on culture at @SBalaghi.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful & Informative Book, March 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution (Paperback)

Since there are so few books on modern Islamic art, this book is an amazing find! It is filled with beautiful illustrations of posters, photographs, and paintings. Though scholarly, the essays are readable. The book shows how art can serve as a fascinating insight into the politics of the contemporary Middle East. Anyone interested in Iran or the Middle East will learn a lot from this book!

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 13, 2005

By 

N. Barazandeh-pourhassani "a reader" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution (Paperback)

It was quite informative, as modern Iranian art is somehow unknown, and is trying to find a character of its own. But also I have to disagree with the other comment , that Art in Iran is smehow quite different from the rest of the middle east, and it does not portrait the modern "Islamic Art" at all, and to understand Iranian art one has to consider so many other factors, such as the Persian art, and pre-Islamic art, and if you are interested in the art in middle east in GENERAL, then you should buy a book about art in middle east in General!