Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes: 1948-78

When tradition meets global modernism: masterworks from Iran.

Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 1948-78 explores how the complex cultural tensions of the nation’s period between 1948 and 1978 led to artistic innovation. As Iran became modern, modernism became distinctly Iranian. Iranian artists created a unique form of modernism that addressed the tension between commitments to innovate and an engagement with traditional Iranian ideas and cultural forms.

Heavily illustrated, this publication features thirty artists who worked during the pivotal modernism period and practiced in a range of media from painting and sculpture to printmaking, drawing, and architecture. Featuring an introductory essay by exhibition curator Pantea Haghighi that surveys the range of artistic and political influences on the emergence of Iranian modernisms and a selection of focused essays by scholars and curators Fereshteh Daftari, Davood Madadpoor, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Ali Bakhtiari, Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 1948-78 is a timely addition to the scholarship on both alternate modernisms and the history of Iranian art.

Featured artists include: Hossein Amanat, Massoud Arabshahi, Siah Armajani, Iran Darroudi, Kamran Diba, Seyed Mohammad Ehsaey, Parvaneh Etemadi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Abdol-Aziz Farmanfarmaian, Mansour Ghandriz, Marcos Grigorian, Nahid Hagigat, Farideh Lashai, Reza Mafi, Leyly Matine-Daftary, Sirak Melkonian, Ardeshir Mohasses, Bahman Mohasses, Nicky Nodjoumi, Ruyin Pakbaz, Faramarz Pilaram, Behjat Sadr, Abolghassem Saidi, Sohrab Sepehri, Masoumeh Seyhoun, Houshang Seyhoun, Jazeh Tabatabai, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohsen Vaziri-Moghaddam, Hossein Zenderoudi, and Jalil Ziapour.

As an independent curator and doctoral student at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Pantea Haghighi focuses her research on modernism in architecture and the visual arts in relation to the politics of language. She is currently curator in residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery and administrator/curator at the West Vancouver Art Museum.