Art Aware: Iranian Graphic Designers

Showing posts with label Iranian Graphic Designers. Show all posts

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Art meets Politics: Iranian Revolution poster art on display

by Kyle Sherard, Mountain Xpress

There are roughly 200 connections between Asheville and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. No, really. It just so happens that one of the largest privately held collections of posters from the Iranian Revolution, nearly 200 in number, resides here in Asheville.

For the next two months, 146 of these posters are on view as part of In Search of Lost Causes: Images of the Iranian Revolution: Paradox, Propaganda and Persuasion, a multi-institutional exhibition series and program, showing at three institutions across Asheville.

Thirty posters hang in UNCA’s Ramsey Library, 10 line the walls of Firestorm Cafe and Books and the remaining 106 fill up two floors in the Phil Mechanic Studios’ Flood and Courtyard Gallery in the River Arts District.

The weekend-long schedule begins at UNCA on Friday, Oct. 17, with an opening reception, film screening and lecture by Dr. Dabashi, an Iranian-born scholar, cultural historian and the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Using a N.C. Humanities Council grant, Dabashi traveled to Asheville to co-curate the exhibitions with Steward, and give a series of lectures and presentations on the collection’s historical and contemporary significance.

The collection belongs to Carlos Steward and Cynthia Potter, who operate the Courtyard Gallery in the Phil Mechanic Studios. They received the posters in 1999 as a gift from a source they will not disclose. Dabashi believes the donor was heavily involved in the inner-workings of the revolution, which took place between 1977 and 1979.

The posters span from the Revolution’s build-up in post-coup, 1960s Iran to the height of the Revolution to the aftermath in the early '80s.

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Monday, 29 April 2013

Politics and Art of Iran’s Revolutionary Tulips

by Garrett Nada, The Iran Primer

Their petals are on the national flag. They line the dome above Ayatollah Khomeini’s tomb. They adorn billboards of martyrs from the war with Iraq. They have been depicted on coins and postage stamps. And hotels, parks and restaurants are named after them. In Iran, the tulip―laleh in Farsi―is ubiquitous.

Tulips on stamp by Rozita. Courtesy The Iran Primer.

The Flag's Tulip

The tulip became one the most common symbols of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Its new flag featured a red tulip in the center to commemorate the revolution’s martyrs. The sword and the four crescent-shaped petals form the word “Allah” and symbolize the five pillars of Islam― faith, prayer, charity, fasting during Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Flag of Iran. Courtesy The Iran Primer.

The revolution has always had a soft spot for the fragile spring flower, a symbol of martyrdom in Shiite Islam. In early Shiism's history, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hossein fell in battle against the Umayyad Dynasty near Karbala, now part of modern Iraq. Tulips sprang from Hossein’s blood, according to tradition.

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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

The Graphics of Revolution and War: Iranian Poster Arts

by Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago

Posters are a powerful medium to convey ideological messages and stir viewers to sympathy and action. Mass-produced and widely distributed, they reach a large audience with their striking design and dramatic, often blunt, messages.

A newly launched Library Web exhibit, The Graphics of Revolution and War: Iranian Poster Arts, explores how posters were used for mobilization and communication during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). This permanent online exhibit was collaboratively produced in conjunction with a loan exhibition of the University of Chicago’s posters on display at the Indiana University Art Museum from October 15 to December 18, 2011. The exhibition was guest curated by Professor Christiane Gruber, University of Michigan, and her doctoral student Elizabeth Rauh. The website was produced and designed by Elisabeth M. Long, co-director of the University of Chicago’s Digital Library Development Center, and Brad Busenius, web and graphic design specialist.
The posters in the exhibition were selected from the Library’s Middle East Poster Collection. The Guide to the Middle Eastern Posters Collection 1970s-1990s includes links to digital images of all of the Iranian posters in the collection.

Montage of Children’s Drawings, ca.1980, Middle Eastern Posters Collection, Box 1, Poster 1, Special Collections Research Center, Image courtesy of The University of Chicago Library

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Tuesday, 8 February 2011

A short history of children's posters in Iran

by Amrollah Farhadi

Even though a history or even a codified short history of Modern Graphic Design in Iran has not been collected and documented so far, but clearly among the documents available and the remaining work scattered between the archives of individuals and organizations, a few influential and decisive events in the history of modern graphic design in Iran can be pointed out.

One of these events is the formation of The Children & Adolescents Intelligence Development Center which was founded in 1964 with the aim of creating opportunities for the expansion of the culture of reading and producing suitable books for Iranian children and adolescents. With the presence and cooperation of Iranian artists and intellectuals this center has been further expanded each day.

The Graphic Design Center of this organization also began work from approximately the same time. With the presence of artists such as : Farshid Mesghali, Abbas Kiarostami, Nooreddin Zarrinkelk, Morteza Momayez, Ebrahim Haghighi, Ali Akbar Sadeghi , and… it can firmly be said that the work created amongst them is a brilliant and lasting legacy for art history and graphic design in Iran.

Within a two years span Azin Farmandi, a graduate from Shariati University in Tehran, was able to gather over 400 posters of this organization. She completed her thesis entitled An Exploration of The Children & Adolescents Intelligence Development Center Posters along with eleven interviews with some of the most influential Graphic Designers of this center. This is considered to be the first reliable written document available.

Currently The Vije School of Visual Communications (VSVC) known as The First Graphic Design & Communications Private School in Iran will be exhibiting over 50 of the collected posters, selected by Ebrahim Haghighi, at the Vije Gallery for the first time starting from October 1st, 2010.

This collection is a selection from the work of:

Morteza Momayez, Nooreddin Zarrinkelk, Abbas Kiarostami, Farshid Mesghali, Ali Akbar Sadeghi, Ebrahim Haghighi, Mustafa Owji, Amir Naderi, Parviz Naderi, Bahram Khaef, Mohammad Reza Adnani, Parviz Mahallati, Mohammad Reza Dadgar, Behzad Gharib Pour, Abolfazl Hemmati Ahooe , Behrad Amin Salmasi, Mahshid Mohajer, Maryam Rahmati Evini Soodabeh Agah, Hushang Mohammadian, Ahmad Asbaghi, Shapur Hatami, Kourosh Parsa Nejad and Maryam Khonsary.

The Garteh Weekly Analytical-Research Magazine, also in cooperation with this event, has initiated a project entitled The Children & Adolescents Intelligence Development Center which deals with the study and analysis of the performance of this organization beginning from its launch.

This exhibition is the first in a series of events to be held at The Vije School of Visual Communications (VSVC) as a commemoration to 5 years of study, planning and training which comes to an end in March 2011.

This web exhibition accompanies a recent poster exhibition at the Vije Gallery in Tehran. Text and pictures were kindly provided by Amrollah Farhadi.