HONAR-HA-YE-TAJASSOMI (HONAR-HA-YE-ZIBA )
Year:2014 | Volume:19 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Painting and art criticism are based on two different semiotic systems. The expression in painting is basically visual and in criticism is verbal. On the other hand, all expression is linguistic, that is expression and comprehension in all semiotic systems is basically linguistic. The art criticism, then, is situated between two poles: visual signs and verbal signs. It has as function to reorganise and to reconcile these two types of signs into a one and coherent schema. However, because of several reasons, which will be discused in this paper, this reconciliation is faced by challenges. Firstly, images and words are ireductible to each other and, therfore, the description of visual compositions by verbal signs, as the first constituent element of any art criticism, appeares as a challeng in itself. Thus, the art criticism is placed in a “critical” situation and is deeply concerned with the semiotic “crisis” of the conflict between words and images. For exemple, when the abstract painting uses the simplest plastic elements, the critic’s text must uses much more verbal signs to describe it. Secondly, the post-structuralists have shown that the language per se is full of ambiguity and opacity and, in spite of appearance, lacks of transparency and lucidity. These chracters permeate to the art criticism as a verbal text. Thus, it is hypothesized that art criticism must be constructed of four fundamental elemets (painting itself, spectator, art criticism’s text and the reader of this text) in order to reduce these effects. We will show that the interaction and the interconnection of these elements give to the art criticism a genuine character, different at the same time from visual compositions and pure verbal textes. Nevertheless, through this “betweenness” The Semiotic Challenges of Painting and Art Criticism Mohamadreza Abolghassemi* Aix-Marseille Université, Département de sciences de l’art, France.(Received 9 Oct 2013, Accepted 2 Mar 2014) these two types of signs come closer to each other. The criticism is always a situated text. In otherwords, it is in a determined context that a text is written and, therefore, all historical, cultural, social features of this context will appeare in the texte of criticism. For post-structuralists, these features are fundamentally linguistic construction. Visual elements also have the same character: they are dependent to the linguistic context in which they are composed. In the art criticism, these two characters are combined and will build a new construction, which is verbally and visually dependent to its linguistic context. It is, then, the language, which determines the comprehension of the painting and its critic. Because of the inherent ambiguities of language, neither painting perception nor its critic comprehension is perfect. In fact, the interaction of verbal and visual signs make the art criticism a ground in which the painting itself, the text of criticism, the spectator and the reader participate in a paly. The laws and rules of this paly are stablished by the frame of language. The point is that different languages have different rules and the richness of art criticism is the result of these differences.

Thinkers have always tried to define art with special features in the aesthetic analysis that they are common among all the artworks. But what they were suggested, for example representation and expression, is covered a part of artworks and artistic periods. Formalism recommends attention to structural, perceptual and formal elements in order to overcome on these problems as a method in the analytical aesthetics. In fact, abstract art required to this method. Modern art distances from representation of clear and bright images. Therefore, man could not judge with attention to the subject matter, representational content or conception of the artworks. A group of analyst tried to evaluate the artworks with recourse to formalistic tendency. They attempt to find the cause of the aesthetic emotion in form. It is said, the root of formalism is in the ideas of Kant. Early formalist, including Konrad Feilder and Eduard Hanslick, their thought reflects Kant’s idea about form. Feilder identified artistic creation with perceptional experience. This experience is free from any interest, motive and purpose. Gradually, the important of subject matter removed in the aesthetic analysis of the artworks. After his, Clive Bell, one of the formalist analyst, is based the understanding of art on “significant form”, of course due to ambiguity in the word of significant, his theory encountered with many critiques. Noel Carroll is one of these critics. Of course, many critics are for formalism and formalists, all persons do not accept an essence for art, including Kendal Walton and Arthur Danto. Nevertheless formalistic discussions are still ongoing. Even, it is said, he isn’t considered the importance of what is represented in the artworks. But due to the importance of formalism and its place in the modern art, we cannot reject simply it. It seems, we can find a modified formalism and a response to the ambiguity of significant in Niklas Lumann’s the systems theory. Because of, he is announced observation as common aspect in the all of artworks. In Luhmann’ art theory has been associated to each other observation and form and distinctions. This is same the different definition of form. Therefore, in his view form isn’t defined versus content, that is, what reflects content. Each form is made from a distinction, these distinctions are necessary for observing, for example the distinction of inside and outside is necessary for the observation of inside a thing, even though not observed its outside. It is important to observe the forms. Then the work of form does not finish in production and continues in perception with observation. We want to get to know with different version from formalism through the adaptation and comparison of the view of Bell and criticisms on it with Luhmann’ view on artistic form and formalism, because of, Luhmann had not the essentialist conception of art. In his view art is as a social system that is changing and evolving. We try to reach this aim with studying and review of their main woks through translation and analysis them.

In the swarm of artistic transformations in 20th century, works of painting also have got different "titles". In examining these titles, through passing the reasons for choosing them the role of title is introduced in encountering the audience and the way of affecting on the interpretation of audience. This research also tries to study about these influences through Ricoeur's hermeneutics. Ricoeur explicitly states that the first realm that hermeneutics takes the responsibility to represent is the language. It is the language that allows us to talk about arts. In defining the language Paul Ricoeur is influenced by Emile Benveniste and stays away from structuralism. Like Emile Benveniste, Paul Ricoeur considers the language based on discourse; accordingly, each work of art is a discourse which conveys a message, and reveals an aspect of reality through the conversation with the audience. By presenting artistic work as discourse, audience and text are more important than author, and meaning of the work only becomes complete in action of interpretation by audience. Work refers to a world that encounters the world of audience, and audience by passing through stages of Ricoeur’s interpretation, that is, explanation, understanding, and self- understanding, interprets the work, in other words, the audience reaches the meaning. One can consider a role for title in this process which starts with explanation of the work, and finally ends up in self-understanding. Title can be considered as a part of the author's strategy and can create meaning innovation through functions such as metaphor or plot innovation. In fact in the reading action of audience, title can give refiguration of the work to audience till audience can recreate meaning of the work in each interpretation and turns I configuration of the work. As the painter of the 20th century demands the audience semantic innovation so that with the assistance of painting interlude and its title, the audience won’t be the inactive consumer of the thoughts of the creator of art anymore, but he should have participated in creating the meaning of the work by himself. Titles often play an important role in relation to the audience’s interpretation ever since the modern art. In modern painting, due to multiplied importance of structure of the art work for its creator, the narrative fades out and the titles get metaphorical function. Such a function could be seen during this period, particularly in the titles selected by Dadaists and Surrealists due to their particular perception of language. However, through transition from modern art to post modernism and with increasing importance of narrative, audience, and audience’s interpretation, the titles in postmodern paintings function more to devise plot because the artist’s strategy demands the audience to recreate the configuration of the work and to make his own interpretation via his contribution to plot invention. Procedure of this research was development-applied in terms of objective, and also, this research used a descriptive and comparative-analytic method, and data collected by library method were finally qualitatively analyzed logic and argument.

With the advent of ShahAbbas, the Safavid dynasty enjoyed its pinnacle of power. In thisera, thanks to the endurance of cultural traditions and long reign of the Safavids, and also the extraordinary patronage of artists by the court, the strengthening and establishing of art became realized. ShahAbbas’ accession to the throne caused significant political change and as a result, many traditional players of the Safavid court lost their grip on power. These changes in politics provided a chance for other layers of society, including slaves (qolams), to occupy crucial offices in ShahAbbas’ royal government, relying on their personal merits. The promotion of the slaves’ political status, it seems, has been a positive factor in their increasing contribution to the art and culture. By early 11th century (17th century A.D), the slaves, some of them favorited by the Safavid sovereigns and trained under the title of “the especial slave (qolamkhasseh) ” within the court, had joined the royal library and art workshops as painters and calligraphers, and some of them even became the guardians and collectors of famous manuscripts and other exquisite items. Very soon, as the guardians of visual arts, they were entrenched in the rivalry with the Qezelbashs and participated in the process of composing and formulating a new pictorial language which reached its prime in the 11th century. Some of these slaves provided great patronage for the visual arts. QarchaqaiKhan, an Armenian slave, and his descendents were distinguished patrons of art who ruled over the city of Mashhad from 1026 to 1076 consecutively. The few but otherwise extremely important works of this family were mostly recognized in the setting of the capital, i.e. Isfahan. However, literary and artistic evidence both show that one can relate the creation of these manuscripts to the city of Mashhad. During the reign of Qarchaqaikhan and his descendents, Mashhad experienced considerable progress in the fields of politics, culture and the art, and Manuchehrkhan and his son, Qarchaqai Khan II, were significant patrons of the visual arts in the 11th century city of Mashhad. Manuchehr khan’s al-Hashayesh (the Herbs) manuscript with 833 colored illustrations is one of the most invaluable pictorial books of science in the Safavid era, finished on Friday, 3rd of Ramadhan of 1038 by the order and patronage of Manuchehrkhan, then governor of Mashhad. The transcription was done by Mohammad-Baqer al-Hafez, the celebrated calligrapher of the day; and with the exception of one painting, sorat-al-kasfara (p 195) signed at the bottom as “the work of MalekHusein of Isfahan”, all the other illustrations lack a signature. In the first part of this essay, we shall have a historical review of Qarchaqaikhan and his descendants’ era, and in the next part, their patronage of the visual arts produced in the city of Mashhad, al-Hashayesh manuscript in particular, will be the focus of our survey.

In my Opinion Muhammad Zaman Farangi Khawn (Translater) differed from Muhammad Zaman Farangi Saz (Painter), although they Lived in One time under Shah Sulyman Safavi. Niccolo Manucci, the Italian traveler in 17 th century, recounts meeting in Kashmir a persian called Zaman who had converted to Christianity and received a Mansabdari from Shah Jahan, who then sent him to Kashmir. This persian had taken the Christian name Paul – Paolo. He was sent by Shah Abbas II to Rome to study Christianity. He retured to Iran with Eurpean modes and Christianity in his soul, a situation so fraught with danger that he then fled to India. This Muhammad Zaman is Muhammad Zaman Farangi Khawn which difer from Muhammad Zaman Farangi Saz who court painter of Shah Sulyman Safavi. What we can say about Muhammad Zaman Farangi Khawn is that he was sent by Shah Abbas II to Rome to study and learn Latin and return to Iran for debate with missioners about religious matters. The debate formed an important part of religious matters in the court of Safavid, s shahs. But Muhammad Zaman Farangi Khawn fraught with danger, fled to India. He received protection from Shah Jahan, who then sent him to Kashmir. Muhammad Zaman in India translated the first chapter of De Christianna Expedicione A pud Sinas (the Christian Missions Dispatched to China) into persian under the title Chin namah. This book is one of the most important sources on the history of China and Iran. This work printed on the basis of Matteo Ricci, s notes on China in 1615 A.D. Matteo Ricci, the Italian priest, lived for thirty year in China. Muhammad Zaman in his introdution of Chin namah called himself Farangi Khawn (latin I translator) which translated this book in Jahan abad. What we can say about Muhammad Zaman Farangi Saz (painter) is that he was laurite painter of Shah Sulyman and lived in Isfahan. His father, s name was Haji Yusuf Qumi. Muhammad Zaman acquainted with European painting from large scale oil painting of contemporary European Monarchs and religious scences and Europeam printed books and single images on paper as prints. On the other hand, Muhammad Zaman served as apprentice to European painters who worked in Safavid court. Muhammad Zaman oeuvre is documented throughout the second half of the 17 th century by roughly 40 works. This works include drawings and paintings made after European models; a number of painted and varnished papier mache objects; Three studies of flowers; Ilustrations and miniatures added to two unfinished princely manuscripts, such as Khamsah Nizami Shahy and Shahnamah Shah Abbas; nearly half of the 30 miniatures in Khamsah, 1674 – 1678; and a series of six highly finished, eclectic paintings dated between 1676 and 1689. Some of his paintings are inscribed as having been done "in the pleasant twon of Ashraf" on the Caspian coast and three paintings carry a notation that they were made for the Royal Treasury. One of his painting, "the Desent of the Holy spirit" carries an inscription to the effect that it took fourteen Mounths to complete. This Article discussed the two Muhammad Zaman as two separate persons which altogether distinct from each other.

The art of comics is one of the artistic medium which illustrates a story with various concepts through frames of images. This kind of artistic expression, from its beginning time till now, has been passed various stages of developments in the aesthetic field of visual arts, and it has been achieved special and singular form and characteristic, and it has been gained a unique way of expression among various art forms. Although American temporary culture of visual arts has been had the most significant role in creation diverse comics genres and its propagation and popularity in the world, it has been circulated in different cultures as an independent artistic medium with different genres. In recent decades, comics like most of the other imported artistic forms - especially those that have origin in western culture- had been imported Iranian art field and produced and published in few limited major genres. Nevertheless, few numbers of comics genres that produced in Iran do not seem to be comparable with western comics genres diversity – especially in the United States-, this article is attempting to obtain a comparative examination between Iranian genres and American ones. For achieving this purpose, at first, is determined some indicators for comparing which are on the foundation of concepts and are taken from other media that have been arranged on the basis of several distinct categories, and is introduced some of the major American comics genres and is taken into account some of their main traits by use of mentioned indicators. On the other hand, this paper is analyzed Iranian comics genres and found out their features. Then, is recounted their corresponding features. It will indicate that despite of differences among Iranian comics and American 8 T comics forms, also cultural differences which are in the comics concept, it seems that some of the Iranian comics genres to be traceable - on the basis of their similar features with western comics- as equivalents for western comics genres and some of them to be followed as indigenous comics genres that in individual form belong to Iran. In other word, the comparison and detecting some analogies and differences aspects among common genres in these mentioned different cultural areas –American comics genres and Iranian comics genres- will lead to more recognition and introduction of what called Iranian comics genres. In a word, this article is trying to show that Iranian comics can classify systematically in four prevalent genres which are folk genre, war genre, religious genre and epic one. In comparison with American comics genres, some of Iranian ones have absolutely match in their features - war genre-, some of them are distinct in some aspects – super hero genre in American comics and epic genre in Iranian ones- and some of them –indigenous genres- are totally unique without any equivalent in western ones – folk genre-. It seems that such differences not only do come from artistic materials and concepts, but also come from concepts beyond them which belongs to others aspects of one special nation.

The interaction between users and products, is one of the key factors in design process and assessment of products too. Because design for user’s perception, is a specific and technical issue. Designers refer to psychology and psychological theories to understand how on the one hand, form and other physical characteristics, and on the other hand, user intentions and values, affect the interaction between the user and the product, and how a product can transmit functional information to the user. Among these theories, affordance, describes the relationship between user’s actions and understanding the physical characteristics of products well. The aim of this research is to investigate and describe the applied concepts associated with affordance in detail, from the field of psychology which is the cradle of this technical term, to the design process which is the application place of this theory. So in the beginning, the term “Affordance” is defined. Presented definition, is the result of challenges which emerged in connection with the application of this term in recent years. Then it’s appearance and basic concepts in psychology is mentioned. Goes on to talk about affordance entering to the field of industrial design and it’s application to define the user’s interaction with environment and products. Continues to describe concepts of perceived affordance (proposed in 1999), positive and negative affordances (affordance polarity), mapping between the controller and the controlled parts of products, affordance – based errors, and categorized affordances based on complexity. Each section is accompanied with practical examples to clear the issues. In the final section, a complete affordance – based design process is offered which begins with motivation and results in applied products that satisfy the user’s needs. Thus designer’s related duties are fully explained. A general and systematic affordance – based design process, includes identification of different cognitive needs of users, based on research methods and instruments, analyze relevant information, convert needs to affordances, and provide concepts which involve desired affordances. So concepts and their affordances can be analyzed and compared with user’s needs. This way, it is possible to modify them and achieve final design. Such structure is similar to function – based design processes and can be combined with them properly. The theory of affordance was offered in 1960’s, and it’s application in the domain of product design was introduced in late 1980’s. So despite being well known in the realm of industrial design, even in recent years, different kinds of products are designed and produced which are deprived of principles and values of affordance theory, thus cannot satisfy user’s functional and cognitive needs properly. Concur with the development of user centered design (UCD) approach, scholars try to use theoretical and applied principles of affordance in design process and propose achieved models. It is obvious that the improvement of proposed models is dependent on their application in product design and benefit from implementing feedbacks. So, it is recommended to Industrial designers, to study more about the achievements of this kind of researches and experience and develop affordance – based design process accurately.

Textile design, especially in fashion industry, focuses on changing the public taste and creating continual and variable aesthetics to excite consumers in respond to the economic efficiency of industries. Fashion, especially fast fashion, has many bad influences on social behavior, ecological environment and economy of consumer societies, work opportunities in developing countries and work conditions in poor societies. All of these effects are the consequences of the struggles of fast fashion to produce low price clothes that encourage people to buy more. In this industry the designer plays the leading role, who must change the taste by creating a new aesthetics experience for people. Today though, the growing attention to sustainable development, ecological values preservation and the efforts to reduce the irregular use of natural sources, especially nonrenewable, create a critical condition for fast fashion trend as an appropriate way of production. Furthermore, some designers try to reject previous ideals and characters as a responder to industry and trade requests and replace it with commitment to various factors of sustainable development, especially environmental, social and cultural. New ways to design fabrics with natural and recycled materials, reusing old textiles, replacing the recyclable and long lasting with previous artificial textiles, especially nylons, and efforts to change the production process to remove harmful materials and techniques are common trends to find. However, only technical changes cannot change today’s conditions. Thus, changing people’s behavior and their taste to use new textiles and fashions is a significant factor to attain the goals of sustainability, and lack of public interest in them means failure. This means that changing the previous aesthetics and values with new ones is important to persuade people to use them and power these strategies to replace the previous ones. This article tries to investigate how the aesthetics of eco-sustainable textiles and eco-fashion can be generalized in theory and practice, and how it can change people’s perception of beauty through contemporary theories. It is demonstrated that two theories on naes deep ecology and Heidegger phenomenological view to the meaning of life, can change the aesthetics from formal to a moral point of view. To show some approaches on this, author tries to show how this moral view can be seen in some famous textile designers that try to transform ecological design from a technical method to a cultural face in order to influence the consumer’s behavior. Survey uses a descriptive analytical research method to show the relationship between theories and practice. Result shows that all practices of contemporary eco design insist on creating a natural aesthetic experience and moral view to inform human about their condition and their relationship with the earth as their living environment. Creative consuming and unique artistic practice as an alternative to dominance of industrial production factors and following the mass fashion provide the deep practice of individuality for each person, a unique sense of being and feeling different in comparison with others and a deep personality that does not need to use fashion as an outer, pseudo-way to attain social identity.