PART TWO

THE IRANIAN ART FROM THE ADVENT OF ISLAM
TO THE VICTORY OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION

THE ART OF PAHLAVI PERIOD

Architecture

The architecture of the Pahlavi era must be divided into different periods. Let us first examine the period of the reign of the first Pahlavi which consists of two parts: from the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty up to the year 1932 and from the year 1932 to the 1942 and the first Pahlavi out of the country. In the first section we can distinguish three major trends: the architecture based on the pre-Islamic period; the architecture based on Islamic iranian architecture; the architecture of western imitation. At the same time, a sort of mixed architecture was created, especially in residential architecture. At the beginning of the Pahlavi dynasty and at the end of that qajar, there were some architects, called traditionalists, who continued with the qajar style. Many of them lived up to the last years of the Pahlavi period, contributing to the construction and decoration of royal palaces. This group includes three generations: the first generation is composed of architects from the qajar period and the period before the advent of the constitutional revolution (year 1907), among which, in the first row, is Hasan Qomi, jurisperito and mojtahed: among the his works we can mention the iwan and the minarets of the sacred mauseleo of Hazrat-e Masumeh and the first sector of the baza of Qom; the Master Rostam Borujerdi, of which the entrance of the Sabzeh Meidan (the fruit and vegetable market square) of Tehran has remained; the Master Fath Ali Shirazi among whose works there are the frames of the entrance and entrance of the madrasa Sepahsalar.
The second generation includes the architects of the period following the constitutional movement, and among them the best known are: Jafar Khan Kashani, among whose works we can mention the entrance of the national park-garden of Tehran, the Green Palace of Saadabad, the plant and the stone entrance of Takht-e Marmar, the Haft Kaseh hall and the frames of the eastern iwan of the Sepahsalar madrasa of Tehran; Master Jafar Khan who was the architect of the period of the reign of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and worked until the Pahlavi period; Master Mohammad Zadeh, of which considerable works have remained such as the Haj Sani od-Divan mosque, the mausoleum Sayed Nasr d-Din, the Timcheh (bazaar) of Sadr Azam in Nasser Khosrow Street, one or two iwan of the Sepahsalar madrasa and the lower section of the dome of the monument of "Sar -e Qabr-e Agha"; Master Mohammad Qomi Shirazi, author of the upper section of the dome itself; the Master Mahmud Qomi (son of the Master Hasan Qomi Mojtahed) who built a part of the frames under the dome of Takht-e Marmar, the entrance to the Najmiyeh Hospital and also the lower part of the dome of the Sepahsalar mosque in Tehran; and finally Master Ismail Qomi, the other son of Master Hasan Qomi, of which the minarets of the sanctuary of Hazrat-e Abd ol-Azim remained in the city of Ray and the entrance hall of the madrasa Sepahsalar in Tehran.
The third generation of these architects, made up of the nucleus from the previous two generations, begins with the architect Haj Hossein Lor Zadeh. Many mosques remain of him (he built about 842) and numerous palaces and buildings, among which the most important are: the entrance of the Bank of Iran & England in the former Sepah square, the entrance of the Dar ol-Fonun school, the Ferdowsi's tomb, the Shah's private palace in the city of Ramsar, a part of the decorations of Takht-e Marmar, a part of the Saadabad complex, the tomb of the Lor Zadeh Family, the Azam of Qom mosques, Imam Hossein, Motahhari, Anbar -and Gandom and Sangi of Tehran (the latter mosque was recently demolished by the Municipality of Tehran), a part of the Sepahsalar mosque-madrasa and finally a part of the shrine-mausoleum of Imam Hossein in the city of Karbala (in Iraq ). He built 363 mosques after the Islamic Revolution alone. Master Heidar Khan, who built the Takht-e Marmar based on the plant prepared by Master Jafar Khan, and Leon Tatavusian and his assistant Boris can also be considered belonging to this generation.
Given the strong pro-western inclination of the first sovereign pahlavi, many foreign architects and engineers, such as André Godard and Siroux, came to Iran, initiating the westernization of Iranian architecture. Initially, however, to give their works an Iranian trait, they also collaborated with the Iranian architects, even though their contribution was not so considerable. Some of those foreign architects, such as André Godard, who were interested in ancient Iranian art, tried to give their works an Iranian rather than European character. Nevertheless Godard, with the establishment of the architecture course at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran, formally committed himself to teaching Western architecture based on the ancient Greco-Roman architecture and the new European technologies in this discipline. and some Iranian architects, who had recently returned home from abroad, such as Mohsen Foroughi and Hushang Seihoun, continued on their way.
The architecture in this period suffered from a confusion due to the diversity of styles, and over time the Iranian traits diminished and the European aspects became more and more evident. The architects who cared about the ancient fundamental principles tried to cover, with a symbolic and ancient covering, the western styles and forms, in other words to give the Iranian aspect to this type of architecture. In addition to this confusion, the political tendency of the first Pahlavi towards greater westernization, and a serious artistic malaise in the country, favored the exclusion of constructive typologies aimed at giving a traditional look to the facades of monuments and palaces. When the sovereign changed his pro-British policy in favor of Hitler's Germany, architecture followed him, turning to German styles. On the other hand, mania, or rather the disease of "demolishing the works of the past to create new and modern", led to the destruction of many beautiful monuments of the zand and qajar era and later even of the Safavid ones. In their place, despite the availability of so many lands in Tehran, western-style buildings were built. In this way, zand and qajar villas and buildings were demolished to build the offices of government ministries and institutions such as the Treasury or Justice Ministry.
The return of the Iranian architects who had completed their studies abroad, increased the gap between authentic Iranian architecture and Westernized architecture, making it even more evident. In other words, Iranian "interiorizing" architecture became an exteriorizing architecture! The new technologies in this art, the use of new construction materials such as iron beams and reinforced concrete and the exclusion of local peculiarities and authentic Iranian features, completely changed the space and the urban and architectural aspect of the city. All the buildings, such as the offices of the state offices, the big hotels, the banks, the central stations of the railways, the technical-professional schools, the faculties and the universities, the hospitals etc ... were built and erected according to the new needs and to western illusions. This process continued until the demolition of the ancient works to build "westernized" works became a lawful and habitual fact. So the castles, monuments, fortresses and even some ancient mosques were demolished in order to pave the way for the enlargement of the cities. The reasons for these demolitions could be described as follows:

- because the fortresses, villas and qajar monuments were not in harmony with the urban system and with the westernized architecture and since the tourism industry was still unknown in the country, the demolition of these works seemed a normal and profitable fact . Moreover, from the political point of view, there was an attempt to erase all traces of the previous organization of the state, and through the demolition of his works, those of the recently established system became more evident;
- because there were too many similarities and strong links between ancient monuments and religious works and monuments, the first Pahlavi, due to its anti-religious inclination, supported the destruction and elimination of this type of monuments. It is noteworthy that the religious buildings built during this period were very simple and discharged, since their construction was not financially supported by the state, but it was the people who provided them according to their own economic and financial resources.
- the third reason concerns the enlargement of cities in relation to new needs, and among these the creation of wider road networks that became a pretext to make the demolition of past works that were on the new routes to be made normal and habitual!
During the reign of the second Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza Shah, even minimal attention was paid to giving an Iranian appearance to the buildings and in the name of modernization an intense propaganda was launched for life in apartments in multi-storey buildings (sometimes they over twenty floors)! The emigration from the villages to the cities made the construction of many houses even more urgent and so life in the apartment was replaced by life in one- and two-storey houses and with a private courtyard. The plants of the great European palaces were copied and made also in Iran, and they formed large residental complexes unrelated to the Iranian spirit! Currently these buildings have grown as large and colossal mushrooms, as a symbol of technical and architectural progress in different cities, particularly in Tehran and in the capitals of the regions of Iran.

Painting and other visual arts

After the return of Mohammad Ghaffari (Kamal ol-Molk) from Europe, where he had studied and learned Western painting and copied European classical works, his activities to teach the methods of Western painting gradually deviated the path of Qajar painting towards a new evolution, replacing it with absolute realism similar to the Italian artistic renaissance. The artists of the authentic current of art, including painters, artists of ceramics and mirrors, took care of the decorations of the royal palaces, leaving the teaching of the Iranian-Islamic arts.
Only for a short period of a few years was a school run by Hossein Taherzadehe-ye Behzad to teach the Iranian arts. This school instructed some so-called traditionalist artists, whose number was counted on the fingers of one hand. The first generation of these artists is no longer alive, while the second is approaching the age of old age. The establishment of the Faculty of Fine Arts through the French André Godard, who was later directed by the engineer Foroughi, led the school of Taherzadehe-ye Behzad to close and interrupt its activities. Thus the preservation and teaching of authentic Iranian arts was limited to the country's Office of Fine Arts.
On the other hand, the artists who studied abroad, sent to Europe by the first Pahlavi, after returning home, introduced new European methods, completely alien to Iranian art and culture, committing themselves to teaching them and disseminating them to induce people to assimilate them! And given the concordance and harmony of the current Europeanizing with politics, the Ministry of Culture at the time was responsible for funding, instructing and encouraging young artists to be active in this new current. As a result, traditionalist artists, especially painters of coffee frescoes, fell into oblivion and the masters like Qullar Aghassi and Modabber died in poverty and poverty. Other painters were active only in some cities like Isfahan and so the number of Iranian masters gradually diminished.
During the reign of the second and last sovereign Pahlavi, Europeanization became a current of everyday life and so much the blind imitation of European art spread that many artists presented European works, with little changes, as their own works with lots of name and signature! The most prominent characters in this group were Nami, Jafari and Master Ziya Pur. The establishment of the Shiraz Festival of Art by Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the last king, made sure that some expressions of contemporary Western art, particularly music and entertainment, were so appreciated that they were publicly performed for the streets of Shiraz. Shows offensive and contrary to religion and morality that were then imitated by Iranian artists. Even the cinema, which is an entirely Western art and one of the phenomena of contemporary technology, was one of the artistic expressions that developed during that period and spread widely during the reign of the second Pahlavi, while efforts were being made to Europeanize culture. popular.

Cinema and Theatre

The performing arts, such as theater and cinema, are mainly two Western European arts and their introduction into Iran is considered a sort of "Westernization" and "Western cultural aggression". This phenomenon occurred at the time of the transition from the Qajar dynasty to that of the Pahlavi. The first Pahlavi, Reza Khan Mir Panj, supported at the beginning by England, undertook to eliminate, or at least weaken the Islamic religion, by replacing the Iranian-Islamic culture with that of Europe. And this was possible only through the dissemination of European cultural currents and the prohibition of carrying out Islamic religious and cultural ceremonies.
The cinematographic and theatrical art, however, had a different tangle and the differences gradually showed themselves as they spread. For this reason it is necessary to study and examine them separately.

Theater

Historians show that in antiquity there were two species of spectacle in two different areas of the world: in China in the East and in Greece in the West. But in the Near and Middle East there is no trace of this art before the invasion of Alexander the Great, and there is no historical evidence that demonstrates the veracity of the historical accounts according to which Alexander, on the road to India through the Mesopotamia and Iran, built outdoor theaters for performances in the cities of Babylon and Kerman: until now there has not been the slightest trace of these sites.
It seems that during the reign of the Buyidi, of Shia confession, a kind of religious spectacle spread to commemorate the martyrdom of the Lord of the martyrs Imam Hossein ibn Ali (peace be upon him). However, since the Safavid period, this type of show officially spread with the name of taziyeh ('tragedy of passion') and numerous poets composed mourning poems and dialogues in verses to be recited in these shows. Undoubtedly the poem composed by Mohtasham Kashani about the tragic episode of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Hossein and of seventy-two people between family members and his companions, is the best known of these poems. Along with these mourning performances, religious ceremonies were also held to commemorate the anniversaries of the birth of saints, in which poems were recited and sung. It is quite certain that these ceremonies and performances took place in an improvised form and did not have a specific place for staging and were therefore called "above the tub" (the stage was set up above the pool in the middle of the courtyards of the houses. private, NdT).
During the Qajar era, and more accurately during the reign of Nasser ad-Din Shah, the art of taziyeh reached the peak of its splendor. He, after returning from Europe, ordered to build a circular-shaped theater in different floors with a circular platform on which to perform this spectacle of mourning. This theater which was named Tekiyeh Dolat and was covered by a huge tent, was active until the time of the first Pahlavi; he, however, being against all sorts of religious manifestations and being the spectacles of taziyeh and in general the mourning ceremonies for the Imam Hossein (peace over him) the demonstration and the exaltation of the struggle against oppression, of the justice, and the need to recommend the good and forbid evil, all this was in stark contrast to his way of governing the country based on oppression and suppression; then ordered the demolition of the Tekyeh Dolat theater and so this beautiful architectural work was destroyed. On the other hand, he built rooms to stage the translated western shows, and so he took a big step towards the exclusion of religious culture and the spread of Western culture. From that moment on we can talk about a new and foreign art called Theater. The art of Western spectacle, the theater, at the time of the reign of the second Pahlavi, is divided into the following four genres:

1) theater where Iranian themes prevail and with a tendency and political stance, just the same western way. In this genre were active actors like Ali Nassirian, Jafar Vali etc ... that recited the scripts written by Gholam Hossein Sa'edi and Akbar Raadi. Since the introduction of Western theater in Iran coincided with the events of the fifties and sixties, in these performances the political tone generally prevailed, and sometimes even political irony. For this reason, after a short time they were victims of political censorship and were eventually banned.
2) completely Westernized and low intellectual level theater, definitively apolitical (wanted by the regime itself). This kind of theater was strong enough thanks to the particular support of the government of the time, it was completely westernized and devoid of any political reference. It had a strong anti-religious connotation and took place during festivals or artistic festivals. The Shiraz Art Festival was the most explicit of these programs. Characters like Ashur Banipal and Arbi Avanessian, were its promoters. Sometimes they also recited foreign artists. These groups and this kind of show were always challenged by the other groups.
3) university-student theater. This genre was promoted by student currents and university political groups in the faculties of art, with political themes and social criticism. This genre reached the peak of splendor in the years preceding the Islamic Revolution and despite being opposed and pursued by the authorities, continued its activity up to the period of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in the 1979.
4) popular and street theater called Lalehzari (from Lalehzar, name of a street where performances of the popular genre and comedian took place). The main objective of this genre was to entertain and make spectators laugh and to remove people from political activities. This genre was widespread in the sixties and seventies, but with the diffusion of the cinematographic art lost its splendor and the number of theaters of this type of shows gradually diminished until it finally became extinct with the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Cinema

Even cinema as theater is a completely Western art that was invented in France by the Lumier brothers in the 1895. Its working principle is based on the rapid passage of a series of photographs in front of the eyes to create the impression of movement in the images. The first film produced, lasting only a few minutes, was "The output of the factory workers". The term 'cinema' means movement. And just at the beginning of his invention was brought to Iran, at the time of Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, a camera and printing machine produced by the Lumier factory. The first Persian-language film titled Dokhtar-e Lor ('La ragazza Lor'), was produced by Sepanta in India, which thanks to its novelty, despite having many flaws and deficiencies, became famous and had a big gain.
The art of cinema, like theater, was a means to promote and impose Western culture on the Iranian people, and since most films were imported from abroad, its function was much more than a simple projection on the big screens. Slowly those who had learned the working method, ie how to make and produce the film, began to produce films with Iranian themes.
However, only films produced with westernized themes and / or in imitation of Western customs and life used the support and economic subsidies by the government. The films produced during the reign of the Pahlavi, in the forties and fifties, had no artistic value, while in them the imitative and political-propaganda aspects in favor of the government and the deceptive ones towards the people were increasingly present. Later, for very clear reasons, including the low cost of film production and the possibility of projecting them in the halls of different cities, cinema in the 1960s and 1970s replaced the theater. Many theater halls, including those of the Lalehzar Street in Tehran, were transformed into cinemas. The importation of different kinds of Western films with completely non-religious themes and contrary to national and religious values, in the seventies induced the Iranian producers to produce immoral and indecent films that the political and governmental administration firmly supported, also financially, with the pretext of freedom of opinion.

Popular arts

The first Pahlavi basically did not give any importance to art, so during his reign, with the exception of the artists remaining from the qajar period, no others appeared. The only important initiative of that period was the establishment of an institute for the Fine Arts directed by Pahlbod, son of Reza Pahlavi. This institution later changed its name to the Office for the General Directorate of Fine Arts, and then to the second Pahlavi, in the Ministry of Culture and Art. This office promoted relatively useful activities for the conservation of artisanal techniques and local arts, such as the processing of ceramics, the engraving of metals, the processing with glass, the carpet, the painting and the processing of majolica tiles, and he also set up a small museum in his own office in Piazza Baharestan. These activities, however, were limited to the rather personal commitment of some employees of the same office and did not extend to the whole country. At the time of the second Pahlavi, in particular in the sixties and seventies, the activity of the Ministry of Culture and Art was mostly reserved for the propaganda and the diffusion of festivals and art festivals, all to promote Westernization of the artistic culture of the country. A biennial exhibition of painting was organized which was an absolute imitation of the European biennials, in which countless works were exhibited produced according to current methods and styles in Europe. Other activities of this ministry were the establishment of some high school of fine arts in the cities of Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran and also the foundation of some faculties for the ornamental arts and for the show that followed the academic programs of the French schools.
The most important event of the Pahlavi period, especially during the reign of the second Pahlavi, was the creation of a group of spontaneous artists who showed a particular interest in the authentic Iranian arts. Although their works were the continuation or imitation of the arts of the Safavid, Zand and Qajar periods and did not present innovations, they nevertheless gave a notable contribution in keeping alive the Iranian national artistic movement and in transmitting it to the period of the Islamic Republic. Among these artists we can mention the names of Modabber and Qullar Aqassi and their students as Ismail Zadehe-ye Chalipa, Abbas Boluki Far and Hossein Hamadani in the field of coffee painting, and Bahadori and Farshichian in painting. Farshchian was a very skilled painter and truly a Master in drawing and coloring. He founded his own style according to the criteria of authentic Iranian art. Master Farshchian had numerous students who are currently in turn engaged in teaching and educating the younger generation.