Iranian themes and aesthetics now possess Arasteh. Around 2000, the painter devised a new abstract style in which a myriad of small, geometric colored spots—mostly crimson, turquoise and pale almond green— carefully juxtaposed, seem wafted through space. These works all have titles containing the word symphony and indeed are suggestive of certain staccato rhythms of traditional Iranian music performed on the santoor. The player of this ancient dulcimer strikes each key with a mallet to produce a crisp, clear sound, much as Arasteh applies neatly defined color touches with the tip of his brush. The “Symphonies” vary in rhythm and density of hue. In 2006 Arasteh painted some of his most lyrical compositions in brilliant colors borrowed from the gemstones most admired in Iran: ruby red, lapis lazuli blue and emerald green.

Few others in the first great generation of Iranian contemporary artists influenced by Iranian aesthetics approach Mansoureh, Kalkhoran or Arasteh in quality. The younger Nasser Palangi sometimes does. The autumn 2006 group exhibition contained a painting of his that is as poetic as abstract art ever is: Diaphanous scrolls in lapis blue with gold specks unwind in an unreal space suggested with a consummate mastery of trompe l’oeil effects. An emerald green cypress appears on a small sheet suspended in midair that curls down at the top and is partly veiled by the semitransparent scrolls. The composition may be reminiscent of Magritte, but the overall effect recalls the varnished marbled paper that covers late 19th-century pen boxes, while the cypress bending in the wind is the timeless image to which Persian poets compare the swaying gait of a young beauty passing by. The color scheme of lapis, gold and green is pure Iranian vintage.

A similar spirit, profoundly poetic, can be recognized in the work of the Gudarzi brothers, who bridge the gap between Iran’s first generation of great contemporary painters and a new one, also inspired by the Iranian aesthetic legacy, that is now coming to maturity. The Gudarzis are thoroughly acquainted not only with Western artistic practice but also with Western art history and its concepts. Mostefa, born in 1960, holds a Ph.D. in figural art from Rennes University, in France, and another in art history from the Sorbonne, while Morteza, younger by two years, earned his Ph.D. in England. Morteza is a professional art historian as well as an artist, with a number of published books to his credit, including The Quest for Identity in the Contemporary Painting of Iran.

For the 2006 autumn show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mostefa sent a picture that pushes further than any other the fusion of Iranian tradition with Western influence confined here to the technique of oil painting. Stylized turquoise cypresses and leafy, dark green plane trees cover the left side of the picture, creating a perspective effect reminiscent of 15th-century book painting. An ill-determined rocky face of blue-blackish maroon fills the right side. The palette of blues, greens and browns, although in tune with the Iranian tradition, does not imitate the past. The nuances are different, and the tones are unknown in the art of previous centuries.

The more intellectually oriented Morteza, with his art historian’s vivid awareness of contemporary Western trends, submitted to the same show an abstract composition that could easily be mistaken for the work of an artist from Paris or New York except for the palette: white, ultramarine and black shot through with slivers of dark red and touches of yellow. This comes close to the harmonies dear to the Iranian eye, the very colors that Matisse so much admired in Iranian book painting.

The interaction of East and West is reaching a new stage with the second great generation of contemporary Iranian artists marked by the heritage of their ancient culture. The integration of Western techniques is thorough, and the assimilation of various strands of influence complete, leading to a different art that opens up multiple avenues.

The 40-something Sharareh Salehi, born and bred in Tehran, offers a fascinating example of age-old tradition transformed into 21st-century modernity. As was often the case in earlier times, the artist is also a poet. In her latest phase, Salehi creates abstract compositions in intense, deep colors, thickly applied. Lines of gold lettering that are reminiscent of 10th-century Kufic inscriptions without actually spelling out words run down an abstract diptych that was shown in 2006 in the Lazar Art Gallery, run by Janet Lazarian. In another panel, richly textured dark red and black streams down the vertical format like the lava of an erupting volcano. In a third, also from 2006, a roll of film seems to have left a fading gray impression across a background of turquoise and black, creating the effect of moiré silk. Immensely talented and versatile, Salehi is likely to be much talked about in coming years, and not just in Iran.