his work, veiled woman , won the first prize of the very first tehran biennal in 1958. he has explored local idioms and nuances, and his portrayal on these flat washes of colour of a woman emerging from a bathhouse in downtown tehran, looking at you sideways, really exemplifies the kind of exploration that artists were interested in doing then. the incredible thing is that there is this misnomer in western art history that modernism was something that was invented in the west, and then exported like a good around the world. whereas, in fact, in the kind of transnational modernisms that are being explored now, we re understand the story differently. and it s great to have this
so we can look at someone like sirak melkonian his work, veiled woman , won the first prize of the very first tehran biennal in 1958. he has explored local idioms and nuances, and his portrayal on these flat washes of colour of a woman emerging from a bathhouse in downtown tehran, looking at you sideways, really exemplifies the kind of exploration that artists were interested in doing then. the incredible thing is that there is this misnomer in western art history that modernism was something that was invented in the west, and then exported like a good around the world. whereas, in fact, in the kind of transnational modernisms that are being explored now, we re understand
the incredible thing is, there is this misnomer in western art history that modernism was something that was invented in the west, and then exported like a good around the world. whereas, in fact, in the kind of transnational modernisms that are being explored now, we re understand the story differently. and it s great to have this moment to establish the huge variety of modernism within iran in the 20th century. iran positioned itself firmly on the global stage so we had artists that moved westward and looked, and reinvented, but we also look had artists who looked eastward. and who more beautiful and more moving than sohrab sepehri, who s known as a poet, as well as a painter? he studied for two years injapan in the early 60s, and also in china. and he came back to iran via india, where he studied there, as well both in its painterly arts, but also in its spiritual meditation. and in this early work,
within the era of modernism, it s interesting to look at some of those key artists, all of whom are iconic today. so we can look at someone like sirak melkonian his work, veiled woman , won the first prize of the very first tehran biennal in 1958. he has explored local idioms and nuances, and his portrayal on these flat washes of colour of a woman emerging from a bathhouse in downtown tehran, looking at you sideways, really exemplifies the kind of exploration that artists were interested in doing then. the incredible thing is that there is this misnomer in western art history that
of the very first tehran biennale in 1958. he has explored local idioms and nuances, and his portrayal on these flat washes of colour of a woman emerging from a bathhouse in downtown tehran, looking at you sideways, really exemplifies the kind of exploration that artists were interested in doing then. the incredible thing is that there is this misnomer in western art history that modernism was something that was invented in the west, and then exported like a good around the world. whereas, in fact, in the kind of transnational modernisms that are being explored now, we re understand the story differently. and it s great to have this moment to establish the huge variety of modernism within iran