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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 w...

The introduction of art school training in the western—style in the 19405, and how iran in the 19605 and '705 developed a form of modernism that was in tune with international movements, but also had artists who were creating specifically iranian works of art. and now, it's time to see some masterpieces of the modern period. there's two really great and important stories to tell. one, of course, is how dynamic modernity was in iran in the mid—20th century. between the second world war and the iranian revolution, there was an incredible scene of arts within iran. you had many different art ...

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

Radical public television programme — and you had art biennales and art fairs and the shiraz persepolis festival. within that period, there were lots of different voices, lots of different political voices. clearly not everyone was monarchist, there were anti—monarchists, marxists, socialists, islamicists, republicans, all working within this field and giving their own voice. so we wanted to represent that dynamic period of modernism, when iranian artists were really exploring different ways of expressing their own modernity. we have oil paintings, sculpture, and photography. we have film,...

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 stor...