Creativity Didn't Wait: Asia Society Presents Modernism in Iran

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

"The Hand" (1960-61) an exquisite silver and gold painting of a
severed hand — a Shiite symbol — embedded in clouds of calligraphy

NEW YORK---Most accounts of modern art say, basically, one thing: the West creates while the world waits, like a grateful beggar, for a nourishing handout. This is false history. That America and Europe are still barely awake to this reality makes an exhibition like “Iran Modern,” which opens on Friday at Asia Society, invaluable educationally. The Asia Society show, which fills the museum, opens on the second floor with beautiful examples of a particular strain of work introduced in the early 1960s by three young artists: Faramarz Pilaram (1937-82), Parviz Tanavoli and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi. [link]

Asia Society Museum: “Iran Modern” (Ends Jan. 5, 2014), 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street; (212) 288-6400, asiasociety.org/nyc

"A View of Islam" (1961) showing individual episodes that led
to the martyrdom of the imam Hossein at Karbala in 680 A.D.