How is home-grown contemporary art viewed within the Middle East? And is it understood differently outside the region? What is liable to be lost when contemporary art from the Middle East is 'transferred' to international contexts - and how can it be reclaimed? This timely book tackles ongoing questions about how 'local' perspectives on contemporary art from the Middle East are defined and how these perspectives intersect with global art discourses. Inside, leading figures from the Middle Eastern art world, western art historians, art theorists and museum curators discuss the historical and cultural circumstances which have shaped contemporary art from the Middle East, reflecting on recent exhibitions and curatorial projects and revealing how artists have struggled with the label of 'Middle Eastern Artist'. Chapters reflect on the fundamental methodologies of art history and cultural studies - considering how relevant they are when studying contemporary art from the Middle East - and investigate the ways in which contemporary, so-called 'global', theories impact on the making of art in the region. Drawing on their unique expertise, the book's contributors offer completely new perspectives on the most recent cultural, intellectual and socio-political developments of contemporary art from the Middle East.

Explores and theorises the modern and contemporary art of Iran from the mid-twentieth century to the present Critically rereads the concepts of modern and contemporary art in the context of Iran Discusses discourses such as nativism, nationalism, anti-westernism or Gharb-zadegi (Westoxification), modernism, secularism, Islamicism, identity versus cultural globalisation, cultural essentialism, global market demands and exoticism Looks at the representation of these discourses in art and artistic movements such as Saqq?-kh?neh, revolutionary art and diasporic art or artistic strategies such as humour, criticism of cultural past, deconstructive and subversive language, etc. Shows how globalisation and its attendant cultural transformations and alternative visions of cultural particularities have emerged as new themes for Iranian artists Based on primary sources including interviews with artists, curators, art critics and cultural activists from a range of disciplinary media such as painting, sculpture, photography, video, performance, installation, and participatory projects Examines how political events such as the 1979 Revolution, its aftermaths and the so-called Reform period (1997-2005) impacted cultural and artistic modes in Iran This book deals with the exploration and theorisation of Modern and Contemporary art of Iran through the examination of art movements and artistic practices in relation to other cultural, social and political discourses during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on discourses and their impact on art movements and practices and aims to selectively explore certain prevailing debates in action during this time. To come to grips with the way that artistic trends in Iran can be traced within the intellectual and political landscape of the country mainly from the 1940s to the present, Keshmirshekan articulates new ideas for relating art to its wider context whether social, cultural or political and to bring together critical and historical evidence in order to provide an insight into current artistic concerns. The book explores these underlying themes and discourses through a series of case studies, including through close scrutiny of works of artists. ?

Complex, innovative and thought-provoking, Iranian art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries offers fresh insight into a culture and society that have been much misunderstood in the West and elsewhere. In this new, comprehensive study, featuring 379 full-colour images, Hamid Keshmirshekan considers the dynamics at play for Iranian artists as they confront their cultural past as well as issues of contemporaneity and cultural specificity. He contends that the twentieth century in particular proved a crucial period in the art and culture of Iran; it was then that the legacies of tradition and modernism came under critical review, and artistic concerns revealed themselves as indivisible from ideological ones. Contemporary Iranian Art includes major work by acclaimed Iranian artists such as Mahmoud Bakhshi, Shadi Ghadirian, Barbad Golshiri, Marcos Grigorian, Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Neshat, Sohrab Sepehri, Mitra Tabrizian, Parviz Tanavoli and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi. Preface by Hala Khayat, Specialist in Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art, Christie's.