Past and Present Iranian Art at LA Museum

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition of art mediums that mixes historical and contemporary Iranian art.  Titled “In the Fields of Empty Days”, 125 artworks, namely photography, painting, sculpture, video, posters, cartoons, animations and historical manuscripts are on display.  More than half of the pieces are from LACMA’s own collection of Middle Eastern art. The works cover a broad spectrum of Iranian art, including Safavid manuscript illustrations and Qajar-era photographs. A series of photo collages, titled “Underground” by Siamak Filizadeh, takes as its cue the long reign of king Nasser al-Din Shah, including his assassination and the execution of his murderer, Mirza Reza Kermani.  Filizadeh has inserted elements of contemporary life into his works. In one photo, the onlookers are recording the scene on their mobile phones while in another one, an ATM is seen on the edge of the photo, The Art Newspaper wrote.  Created in 2012 in response to the Arab Spring uprisings a year earlier, Shirin Neshat’s photographic series, “The Book of Kings”, references the Shahnameh, an epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi (940-1020). In her works, Neshat has used Shahnameh characters as the tattoo designs for the figures she has depicted. According to the exhibition curator Linda Komaroff, the show seeks to change perceptions of Iran in the US. “I hope the show can encourage Americans to question what they see in and read in the news and present them the artistic image of Iran,” she said. The opening was attended by US-based artists Pouya Afshar, Koushna Navabi and Nouredin Zarrinkelk as well as Asad Faulwell and Taravat Talepasand. The show will run through September 9.