Exhibition Dates: May 28-December 5, 2021
Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 914
The installation at The Met Spiritual Pop: Art in 1960s Iran celebrates a gift of seven rare paintings by the artists Faramarz Pilaram (1937–1982) and Massoud Arabshahi (1935–2019) from the heirs of Eric and Sheila Azari in honor of The Met’s recent 150th anniversary This focused collection display is on view through December 5, 2021.
Both Pilaram and Arabshahi were associated with the Saqqakhaneh school of art that emerged in Iran in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition to the seven works, the installation includes three works from The Met’s collection by Ardeshir Mohassess (1938-2008), a contemporary of Pilaram and Arabshahi. All three artists drew on historical forms of art-making and iconography in producing a new artistic idiom for Iran and in commenting upon contemporary shifts in the cultural, social and political life of the country.
Max Hollein, the Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, commented, “We are grateful to the heirs of collectors Eric and Sheila Azari for this important gift of art from a pivotal moment in Iranian art and history. Acquisitions such as this help further our mission to share narratives from across the globe and to celebrate an expanded and enriched vision of modern and contemporary art.”
“The presentation of path-breaking works by both Pilaram and Arabshahi is a thrilling occasion for The Met, particularly when such gifts reflect the significance of art as a witness to transformative moments in history, said Sheena Wagstaff, the Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met. “It celebrates the cosmopolitan spirit of Tehran in the 1960s, and these artists’ innovative embrace of fine art and popular culture to create a unique melding of tradition and modernity: a leitmotif of The Met’s international modern collection.”
The lead-up to the 1979 Revolution in Iran marked a transformative moment for both the nation and its artists. Many of the young artists who defined this period studied at Tehran’s College of Decorative Arts, established in 1961, which turned away from a European fine-arts education in favor of training in local applied arts and crafts such as calligraphy, ceramics, and metalwork. Some were affiliated with the Saqqakhaneh school, which drew on the figurative conventions of popular religious iconography and the art of Iran’s pre-Islamic civilizations while reflecting tensions around the country’s rapid industrialization and nation-building initiatives.
Leading critic and architect Kamran Diba coined “Spiritual Pop Art” for works from the Saqqakhaneh school, suggesting that artists in Iran responded to mass-produced popular religious culture in the same way that postwar popular culture influenced Pop artists in the U.S. and Europe, albeit for different reasons. The Azari collection highlights this critical period in Iranian art and history, during which an uneasy relationship developed between Iran’s history of handmade arts and crafts, the people who created them, and the machines and machine-made products that seemed poised to take their place.
Spiritual Pop: Art in 1960s Iran is curated by Clare Davies, Associate Curator in The Met’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.
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August 20, 2021
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