L’essor d’une avant-garde picturale dans les années 1940 en Iran : premières galeries, associations et revues d’art

In 1940s’ Iran, the first graduates in painting from the Fine Arts Faculty of the Tehran University distinguished themselves from their predecessors. They praised a new vision of art, activities of a new kind – such as the practice of public exhibitions – and new forms of organization. Initially, they used cultural centres of foreign embassies as springboards. Then, some of them founded – pioneering and still largely unknown – independent exhibition areas, as evidenced by the Apadana Gallery Club. Finally, they managed to establish themselves in public exhibition halls, like the Mehregan Club or even the Tehran Biennials of Painting. Nevertheless, until the late 1950s, the activities of this young generation of artists remained marginal and their creations, from the elite perspectives, were still perceived as strange. Indeed, at that time, these pioneers of a new style called “New Painting” in Iran fought to raise awareness among the general public and frequently faced financial troubles, scandals, trials and censorship. For them, the New Painting was the groundswell that had to make the whole society evolve, as emphasized by the large number of periodicals edited, especially by the Fighting Cock Art Society. This article relates the context and steps of this pioneering phase and highlights the profound transformation of Iranian society at the turn of the 1940s.