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'Echoes in Blue' Showcases Iranian Art

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Apr 26, 2003 9:54 am US/Central

NEW YORK (AP) The painting is beautiful to look at -- an orange-striped curtain hangs from a wood pole above a shimmering ocean -- but the title "Separation" hints at a darker meaning.

The curtain painted by Shahla Etemadi represents those put up in Caspian Sea vacation spots in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in order to keep men and women separate as they swim.

The painting is a part of "Echoes in Blue," an exhibition meant to introduce the American public to the work of contemporary Iranian artists, on view until Tuesday at The National Arts Club.

The show comes at a time when the American focus on the Mideast is at its highest in years. Following war in Iraq, some political experts wonder whether the Bush administration will now turn more attention toward Iran, a country the president included in his "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea.

Iran is also in the midst of its own struggle, between its reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami, and its hard-line clerical rulers.

Amid the current events, the exhibit's curators -- both Iranian exiles -- hope to puncture the American stereotype of Iranians as narrow-minded Islamic fundamentalists.

"If there is a theme to the exhibit, it is the theme of freedom and the desire of the artist, the society at large, for freedom and very much the lack of it in society there," said Hamid Ladjevardi.

"There is a beautiful side to the people of every country regardless of what their government's rhetoric is or its actions," said his co-curator, Homa Taraji, the president of Paradi, an international fine arts organization based in Los Angeles. "Art can help open up some doors for dialogue."

The exhibit consists of 55 paintings from 13 artists working in Iran today and was put together with the cooperation of The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Although the Iranian government requires artists to stay away from offensive topics, including politics and religion, many of the works demonstrate the struggle of living in a revolutionary state, Ladjevardi said.

In "Trapped" by Shideh Tami, a dark hand emerges from the bottom of the painting, wrapping itself around the neck of a female face painted in melancholy blues, blacks and grays.

In Hossein Khosrowjerdi's "Paper Boat," two men wrapped in mud-caked bandages, standing in dark water, gaze forlornly at a tiny boat made of notebook paper as if it is their only hope for escape.

And the highly geometric paintings of Rezvan Sadeghzadeh feature groups of women, their backs to the viewer, wearing brightly colored scarves and floor-length dresses. In some, such as "Nude Woman," one woman is isolated from the group due to her lack of a hair covering or clothes.

Not all the works in "Echoes in Blues" are political, however. Four still lifes show sunflowers and wildflowers in vases on tables. And all the works can be appreciated for the skill shown and variety of technique, which includes oil painting, digital images and mixed media.

Both the show's curators have lived in the United States for decades, but came about their connection to contemporary Iranian art in different ways.

Ladjevardi's family owned a large corporation in Tehran, and was putting together a collection of contemporary Iranian art for its new headquarters when the revolution occurred and the paintings and building was seized, he said. He had already earned multiple college degrees in the United States and after the revolution, pursued a successful business career here.

Taraji moved to California in the 1970s for a master's degree and then went to work in the aerospace industry there. Three days before she was to return home, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage.

Except for one trip in the early '80s, Taraji did not return to Iran until 2001. Art had always been a hobby, and when she did return she found "an amazing flourishing of contemporary art" in galleries, along with The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which had been closed in the aftermath of the revolution but was re-opened after Khatami's election.

Since then, Taraji has traveled to Iran several times to gather works for the show and to consult with the curator of the Tehran museum, which received a gold medal of achievement from The National Arts Club last week upon the opening of "Echoes in Blue."

As for Ladjevardi, he has not been back to Iran since the revolution. "Sooner or later, I believe there will be a regime change," he said, which is when he plans to return.

"This exhibit is a good way for people of the U.S. to understand that no matter how repressive a system is, no matter how much darkness envelopes a country in terms of its art and culture, the light of Iranian art can never be totally repressed," he said. "And at any slight opening, it will blossom into many flowers. I think that is already happening in Iran."

"Echoes in Blue" is scheduled to travel to California for a one-month showing at the Hedi Khorsand Gallery in West Hollywood beginning in late September. Showings in Houston and Washington D.C. are also being planned.

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