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The Iranian Studies Initiative at UCSB and Farhang Foundation invite you to

Possibilities for Iranian art

Sketch For a Theory of Historical Creativity

مسیرهای هنر ایران: طرحی از امکان یک خلاقیت تاریخی

a free live lecture event by Majid Akhgar

This event is a part of a lecture series on Iranian Modern and Contemporary Art, which will be held during the academic year 2020-2021

"Two years ago, while working on a special issue of an art quarterly in Tehran on the question of immigration as a somehow existential-historical decision, I wrote an article that its basic question was the prospect for the future one may imagine for oneself and one’s own country, as one decides to stay in Iran or leave it; as though this decision is consequent upon what s/he sees as possible/probable for the future of his/her country.

In other words, based on the idea of historical specificity and contingency of each historical life-world, I proposed a historical variant of the famous Kantian question: in what we may hope, what we may hope for, as a nation at a historical threshold? Is it possible for us to open an unbeaten route for ourselves, making a new history (or making history, new), or do we have to repeat, with a sense of historical belatedness, what others have done sooner and better than us?

As I’ll try to do in this lecture, we may pose this question for ourselves as an artist, and ask of what have been the historically existing options and routes Iranian artists have chosen during the history of modern art in Iran; and, of what one may imagine as possible for the future."

~ Majid Akhgar

This lecture series is made possible with the generous support of the Gramian-Emrani Foundation.

Majid Akhgar
Mr. Akhgar has a bachelor's degree in dramatic literature and a Master's in cinema studies, both from the Art University of Tehran, and is now a Ph.D. student in the Social and Political Thought Program (SPTH) at York University in Toronto. Over the past fifteen years, he has focused on the visual arts, aesthetics, and philosophy of art. He has worked as a freelance scholar, lecturer, and cultural critic; and has written two books (currently working on his third) and numerous articles on aesthetics, art history, and related areas. He has translated ten books, and co-edited one of the oldest and most important journals on art and humanities in Iran, Herfeh: Honarmand.

Mohammadreza Mirzaei
Artist and Art Writer - University of California, Santa Barbara

Mohammadreza Mirzaei is an artist, art writer and fourth-year Ph.D student in the History of Art and Architecture at UC Santa Barbara. Mirzaei’s essays and reviews appeared in such journals as Herfeh: Honarmand, Kaarnamaa, and Tandis. His research focuses on postwar Iranian art, with special attention to the practice of Bahman Mohasses and the relationship between Iranian and Italian art scenes.