PublicationNotes #14

There are few things more exciting than a change of perspective: the feeling of getting to know and understand a field of study or research that has been conceived and produced in a specific local context, connected to the needs and knowledge of the people who live and study there.

I am aware that there is a fine line to tread here: this excitement can also take on the character of the old Western colonial explorer, the Orientalist, opening up a new cultural space — a quality that is inherent in many of the exploratory approaches of European and North American academia, from which the field of Islamic art history has also emerged, as art historian and philosopher Amir Maziar, guest editor of this issue, mohit.art NOTES #14, explains in his contribution. But I hope we can turn this excitement into something else: an idea of how rich and diverse research, knowledge, and education can (and must) be, worldwide.

To be more specific: Research from Iran is not particularly widespread in the international humanities. And what does “international” mean? Today it often means the North American universities, where most advanced scholarship takes place, and where new methods and approaches to the more diverse humanities are tested by scholars from a wide range of contexts. And while West/East dichotomies can and should no longer be maintained, the origins of most disciplines have Western, colonial, and Orientalist roots. This is not to say that researchers in Iran do not use the same methods that are ultimately rooted in a Western approach. In fact, Ghubar and Nowruzgan, featured in this issue, are making a determined effort to align their work with international standards. For today’s students and their professors in Iran, the ideologically oriented approaches and curricula of the country’s universities are not providing the way to decolonial, post-Orientalist research and teaching.

But these researchers and initiatives are also doing something else. They are exploring art and history with the perspective of their lived experiences and environments, alongside local, often internationally unknown pioneers. Perspective matters. And that is why we are so pleased to be able to present you with the contributions in this issue.

In his brief “Historiography of Iranian Art in Contemporary Iran,” Amir Maziar unfolds the origins of Islamic (and Iranian) art history, which became an academic discipline founded on the supposed opposition between Western and Islamic art and which was, only at first glance, anti-Orientalist. Initiated by French philosopher and theologian Henry Corbin and continued by Iranian scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, among others, this school of thought claimed that Islamic and Iranian art possessed a deep spirituality and was therefore intrinsically different to Western art. As the nationalistic/cultural aspirations of the pre-revolutionary period in Iran sought dominance, after the 1979 Revolution, Islamist and nationalist approaches to art research came together, continuing and codifying the ideologically based, essentialist approach to Islamic art history. Young scholars and their teachers are now working to counter this.

In “Ghubar’s Approach to Islamic Art Historiography,” the Ghubar team — comprising students and alumni from the University of Art, Tehran — describes how this platform and research initiative aims to create an alternative space for critically engaging with Islamic art within a broader international academic context. In “Nowruzgan, A Laboratory for the Study of the Persianate World,” Mohammad Gholam’ali Fallah presents the multifaceted research, archival, and educational activities of Nowruzgan, focusing on the arts, architecture, language, and customs of the Persianate world. Both Ghubar and Nowruzgan offer educational and research formats, build archives, provide tools for art historical research, and present international publications and new approaches in Islamic art historiography. They endeavor to reach out to many people globally, working both on-site and online, being inclusive and open beyond ideological or nationalist boundaries. We are delighted to introduce them to you and to present a selection of their activities and materials.

With this issue of NOTES, we hope to give you an exciting little change of perspective! This is the last issue of 2024. NOTES #15 will be published at the end of January 2025 and is dedicated to the topic “Oil from below.” Until then, we wish you a happy and hopefully stress-free end to the disaster-filled year 2024.

Please make sure to also check out our newly updated CALENDAR, with exhibitions and events in Iran, in different local art contexts in Southwest Asia, and around the world. These include exhibitions in Lebanon, where people are trying to continue to make art and culture accessible in spite of the bombing and destruction.

Managing editor: Helia Darabi