Focusing on Iran

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When Sooreh Hera, an Iranian artist living in the Netherlands, was selected to participate in a group show at The Hague’s Gemeentemuseum in late 2007, no one could have anticipated the uproar that ensued. Hera’s contributions included "Adam and Ewald," a series of photographs depicting gay men dressed in black leather and disguised by masks. Among the shots was a portrait subtitled Mohammed and Ali, after the prophet and his son-in-law, also an important figure in Islam.

Immediately, Muslim groups in Holland protested, calling for the museum to be shut down, some threatening violence. Its then director, Wim van Krimpen, pulled the offending photo from the exhibition.

Two years later, Hera’s work and that of other Iranian artists and photographers — much of it dealing with potentially controversial subjects such as religion, gender roles and identity issues — arouse a different kind of passion: International collectors clamor for their pieces, which, accordingly, command ever-greater sums. As Middle Eastern art becomes a market focus, that from Iran is the most sought after, with young Iranian photographers bringing the highest prices at auction.

The recognition these artists are receiving comes largely thanks to a confluence of political, economic and technical developments. The attacks of 9/11 put the international spotlight on the Middle East. The region’s increasing wealth has drawn the auction houses to Dubai and Doha, where sales have been strong. International attention to Iran increased dramatically with the Green Revolution during the 2009 presidential campaign and the subsequent protests against perceived election fraud. Perhaps most important for the young photographers, the Internet allowed the world to view their pictures of the crackdown on the demonstrations, which revealed truths their government would not.

Several recent shows reflect the rising Western interest in the country’s culture. "Iran Inside Out," a show of contemporary Iranian art that ran last summer at New York’s Chelsea Museum of Art and included photographer Abbas Kowsari and video artist Farideh Lashai, garnered popular attention and critical acclaim. In November the Musée de quai Branly, in Paris, staged a retrospective of Iranian photography timed to coincide with the Paris Photo fair, which highlighted Arab and Iranian photographers. And at least 10 photographers will be included in "Tehran/New York," at New York’s Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery next month.

This wave of shows has come despite the problems that working with Iranian artists can pose for foreign dealers, even those collaborating with local partners such as Tehran’s Aaran Gallery, the most prominent in the country (and a sponsor of the Chelsea Museum exhibition). Sanctions and restrictions make transferring money to artists in the county nearly impossible. But "we all find loopholes," says Rose Issa, whose London gallery has exhibited Middle Eastern artists since the 1980s. "The West forbids us to make a transfer [of funds into Iran], but it’s possible to put money into an account in Istanbul or Dubai. If I as a collector want to buy something, the artist will usually know a way." Works generally run from $5,000 to $7,000, their relative affordability reflecting the economic differences between Iran and the West.

Iran’s current prominence in Middle Eastern art in general and in photography in particular is hardly surprising. When photography was introduced, in the 19th century, Iranians were among the first to embrace and experiment with the new medium. "There is a commitment with photographers to the nation, photographing the people of the country, the landscapes, the architecture, the cultural traditions and so on," says Catherine David, who curated a special section on Iranian photography for the Paris Photo fair. Moreover, Iran has been at the forefront of art making in the region since the 1940s, when the University of Tehran was founded. At the time, the school’s art faculty was largely composed of Iranians who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and promoted a Western modernist aesthetic, a tendency encouraged by the government of the last shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.