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Sori tā Sorayā: A Hundred Years of Development of Iranian Art
Abstract
This presentation describes the development of three disciplines of Iranian art, cinema, music, and visual art in the past one hundred years. This historiography is based on the monumental conception of history identified by Nietzsche (1897) that employs the past to inspire contemporary creation. Iran entered the fourteenth century Solar Hijri calendar (1921) with the traumatic memory of two defeats in war with Russia and losing some of its richest northern lands in the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkemenchay (1828). The defeat was a major provocation for politicians and intellectuals to revisit the foundation of their society and culture and initiate reforms based on European models (Katouzian 2009) and later domesticize the models according to the ethos of Iraniannes. This initiative took momentum during the Pahlavi (1925-1979). Multiple institutions funded by the government facilitated art education from primary to advance level. Hight art which was primarily practiced at court or at nobilities’ houses, became accessible to the public. New institutions such as conservatories and art universities were established based on European models. The advent of radio and television further advanced the practice, education, and dissemination of art. The first Iranian sound film was released in 1933 and in less than a hundred years, Iran has a multi-million-dollar film industry and has garnered international fame and a global following after winning awards in multiple international film festivals including the Cannes Festival and Academy Awards surpassing most of the countries in the region. The music conservatoires began teaching in the 1930s and by the 1970s the musical life of Tehran “was comparable to that in many large European cities” (Farhat 1990, 5). Today hundreds of ensembles in a variety of styles from Persian classical, folk, popular to Western classical practice, publish and compete across Iran with a significant number of females albeit the restrictions. Visual art with its millenniums' history in the Iranian plateau was invigorated in the mid-twentieth century by several movements including saqqakhana. Today, Iran’s visual art has gained international acknowledgment and many galleries and exhibitions including Tehran Auction fulfill the increasing interest in contemporary Iranian art. The development of art has been so enormous that brings in mind the exaggerated poetic phrase of Sori tā Sorayā (‘earth to heaven’) positioning Iran as one of the most artistic and progressive Muslim societies in the world.
Discipline
Art/Art History
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries