Visual Arts

Images of the Departed

Documenting and preserving one’s image on gravestone or monument has never been common in the Iran. But since the introduction of photography and the emergence of western-inspired traditions of publishing obituaries in the newspaper, Iranian began to publish the pictures of their lost ones in daily newspapers, on posters, and more recently on gravestones.

These images are usually decorated with inscriptions and symbols. Women’s faces are mostly replaced with female pictograms.

Edmund J Sullivan Illustrations to The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (73)

Sullivan’s illustrations for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869-1933), was a British book illustrator who worked in a style which merged the British tradition of illustration from the 1860s with aspects of Art Nouveau.

Later in his career, he illustrated the First Version of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald, using images of skeletons and animated pots.

Cigarette Cards

Cigarette cards are trade cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands. What you see here is a collection of Iran-related cards from the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Paintings of Mohammad Tajvidi

The painter and Illustrator Mohammad Tajvidi was born in 1925. After completing his studies at the School of National Arts, he took the position of assistant professor at the school. He was promoted to a senior professorship continued teaching until 1963.
Later he started making illustrations for hundreds of books. He died in Tehran in 1995 at the age of 70.

Mice and the Cat

Mice and the Cat (ascribed to Ubayd Zakani, born in the late 14th century) is one of the earliest known Children books in Persian.

Ayatollah’s Old Post Cards

Old post cards of Ayatollah Khomeini, published in the early years of the Iranian revolution (1978-1979).

The Scrapbook of Professions

“The Scrapbook of Professions” is a collection of illustrations from the second half of the 19th century in Iran. It depicts various professions during Qajar period.

Contemporary Iranian Artists in 1969

A collection of photos of young and up-and-coming artists in the 1969 Yearbook of Ettelaat.

Googoosh Record Covers

Iranian popular music changed most radically in the 1960s, when it shifted from the traditional to the western style that would dominate the 1970s. Faegheh Atashin, most famously known as Googoosh, is one of the major contributors to the western style of pop music. Originally pressed on the vinyl format in 1960s and 1970s, her songs and performances were banned after the Iranian revolution of 1979 but her music preserved via the cassettes in the 1980s and CDs in the 1990s in diaspora. Here are her vinyl record covers mainly from 1970s.

Post-Revolutionary Cigarettes

The post-revolutionary Iranian cigarettes. The first two cigarettes (Oshnoo and Homa) were among the cigarettes that used to be produced in the pre-revolutionary years as well.