EAST OF WEST IN SEARCH OF ART AND MEANING/A WOMAN'S VIEW

Grappling with Culture, Art and

Identification/Iranian: Artist Haleh Anvari 

In an interview with the UK Guardian journalist, Natalie Hanman talked to Haleh Anvari about how her photographs of women in brightly colored chadors attempt to redraw the image of Iran in the west. Speaking of her past, Haleh tells of pushing the limits too far and being confined to her house, in frustration she picked up a camera and started a new career as a photographer and artist.   

The Photography of  Haleh Anvari Iranian Artist               from google image for educational purposes only 

  

Haleh grew up a Shia Muslim and  is 46 years old.  She went to an English boarding school and went on to study at Stafforshire University.  She returned to Iran in 1992 and married.  Then came great changes to Iran, it was a time of turmoil and violence. The hijab was made compulsory for women if they were in public and black was considered more desirable than other colors.

Anvari grew up in a family that wore the chadori, and it was considered an act of entering adulthood to begin wearing a chadori after ones youth.  But in her family women wore different colors of dress and that gave her a more liberal view. Growing up in what she calls "a chadori family", she explained it is where women wore the chador "to enter the world".  

from google image for educational purposes only

She goes on to say, in the article, that Iranians are well known for having a double life, outside and inside. She points our Iran's architecture and language show it in many ways.  In a one woman photographic showing and conversation she discusses how the West has eroded the complexities of the relationship of the culture and dress. In her view a black hijab has become almost like short hand in the way the West views Middle Eastern women. 
  

Reading the article gave me more insight than I think I have ever had about the complex feelings Iranian and other Middle Eastern women have about wearing a hijab or chador. In my Western women's view I only saw it as restrictive and a symbol of enslavement for women.  It is so interesting to hear the voices of Muslim women. I am sure the feelings are diverse and not of one view.  It is a conversation worth listening to and understanding.  But without the ability to speak up and have a platform Anvari's voice would never have been heard.  We must thank her and the many women who are speaking up in words, art and photography to let us see into their worlds.

Reza Abrassi, Iranian/Persian Artist of Minatures

I so often concentrate on Western centered art and artists I often forget to focus on Middle Eastern Art and Artists.  The time I spent living in Turkey opened my eyes to so many different areas and styles of art than those I had studied in college or been exposed to in my own country.  I especially fell in love with miniature paintings and illuminations in journals and albums.   I had many wonderful visits to the Tokapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.  I wandered the grounds and viewed the large collection in absolute awe.  I was studying Islamic and Turkish Folk arts at the time.  I had applied to see Suleiman The Magnificent's journals, but thought it was not going to happen because I was at the end of my two year stay.  And wouldn't you know the last few weeks it was ok'd.   I had to rush about getting all the stamps and signatures I needed, but happen it did!  I got to hold those precious journals in my own two hands. It will always be one of my major life events!  As I was researching Iranian Artist I ran across Reza Abbsasi.  His work reminded me much of the style I had seen in Sueliman's journals.  This one was captivating because it is of a portrait of the artist painting.  The blues in the turban are striking, as well as the bright red in his robe.  The left leg angle and body positioning is also interesting.  Reza was one of the few miniature artists of his time that signed his work, dated it and often put interesting side comments.  His work is also known by the gold background and oft single figure.  There is a museum named in his honor, the Reza Abbasi Museum.  

Reza Abbasi