Motaleate-e Tatbiqi-e Honar
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:9|Papers Count:12

In the West, the history of writing on art goes back to the classical antiquity but writing art history began with Giorgio Vasari’s 16th-century pioneering work on the artists’ biographies. In the present article, the authors follow the preliminary conditions that led to the birth and development of art history in the western world. The first important comparison is between the birth time of art history’s writing in the West and in the Iranian world, and the second is related to the axis on which art histories in the two worlds have been organized. We know that the first art histories in Europe were organized on the basis of artists’ lives. This pattern remained as the dominant model of art history for many centuries. Thinking on the neglected dimensions of art in this pattern led some of the art historians to new patterns of art history, including the idea of “art history without names”. On the other hand, in Iran, a genre of writing that can be called a kind of art history began in 10th AH/16th AD century. Art historiography in Iran was in the form of adab (principles) treatises, tadhkirahs (biographies) and prefaces to albums of calligraphies and miniatures. Most of these works were organized on the basis of persons, especially artists. Warp and woof of the art history in these treatises is a network consisted of the longitudinal axes of master-apprentice chains and the transverse axes of contemporary apprentices of each master. Art critique, explanation of art principles, and some marginal notes on the social and cultural context complete this network. One can find some resemblances between these early art historical texts in the two European and Iranian worlds. The most important resemblance is their organization on the basis of artists. However, they have many radical differences rooted in their different view of the world, human being, art, past and present.

This research investigates the relation of social practices and behavior of the musician or singer with the quality of his improvisation in the field of music. Using analytic method and field study, it explores the views of two groups of interviewees in the form of two separate statistical communities. The first sample consists of outstanding teachers of music in sixties and nineties which deals with the behavior of the musician from his own perspective by using the results of questionnaire (1). The second sample consists of students in the music school and free classes of music which studies the social practices and behavior of musicians from the perspective of students by using questionnaire (2). This study aims to validate the hypothesis that improvisation is an intrinsic art and is highly dependent on personal characteristics of the musician and singer. The analysis and comparison of the answers of the two groups indicates that social practices, the behavior of improviser, the manner of speaking and social assimilation of the improviser all have significant relationship with the quality of the musician or singer improvisation. Moreover, the analysis of findings show that there is a significant difference between personal characteristics of the improvisers and accompanists and, consequently, besides instructing general skills of music, the students should be classed into two groups of soloists and accompanists based on their personal features and intrinsic abilities, and each group should follow a special educational program. The main aim is to recognize the relation of social behavior of the improviser with the ability of real-time creation of music and using it in the process of scientific instruction of music students.

The mental visual association of a vague and shapeless form may happen for anybody but only an artist can make an objective form out of it through drawing. This article studies the relationship between the visual associations of a random cardboard piece as the pattern drawn by the artists and the type of their personality as well as the level of their creativity. The samples consist of 80 artists in different educational levels including BA, MA and PhD in the Art University of Isfahan and Isfahan Painters Association that were selected by convenience sampling. A white piece of cardboard with an identical random form was given to samples on which they were asked to draw their visual association. Then, they were asked to answer a questionnaire made by the researcher along with Eysenck personality test and Torrance creativity test. This research is a quantitative study using correlation method and its data was analyzed drawing on descriptive-statistical and deductive techniques as well as SPSS software. The results of this study show that there is a significant relation between the type of personality, creativity and visual association; that is, the samples with higher level of creativity had higher personal sensitivity and were more extrovert relative to lower-creativity samples. The results also show that among various themes acquired from visual association of the cardboard piece only the association of “the man in hat” has a significant relation with the form of the piece so that the samples with higher level of creativity drew different themes whereas samples with lower level of creativity tended more to draw “the man in hat” theme. Moreover, amongst the samples, extrovert persons outnumbered other groups. The most prominent difference between extroverts and introverts lies in the association and drawing of “the man in hat” theme in which extroverts outnumbered other groups. There is also a significant relationship between the feeling of motion and various visual associations which may be due to the state or form of the piece. Hence, it could be suggested that there is a significant relation between the type of personality (introversion or extroversion), creativity and visual association among visual artists.

Curriculum is an essential component of any educational system and there is significant correlation between efficient curriculum and able graduates. Using comparative method, this paper investigates and analyzes undergraduate graphic design curriculum in Iran and ten art universities in the world. Recent developments in the field of graphic design have offered new approaches for the education of graphic design. Thus, reviewing and updating of graphic design curriculum is unavoidable. The main question of this study is how much current undergraduate graphic design curriculum in Iran corresponds to other universities’ curricula. The aim of this study is to find out the similarities and differences in the undergraduate curricula of graphic design in Iran and the under-study universities in order to state the factors which should be considered in their revisions, if the revisions are necessary. Regarding the objective, this paper is applied-developmental and its method is descriptive-analytical-comparative with qualitative and quantitative approach. Its data is gathered via library source and by referring to books, articles, Ministry of Science’s curriculum and the sites of under-study universities.The results of this research and statistical analysis show that the revising of current undergraduate graphic design curriculum in Iran is essential because due to dedicating more than half of the curriculum to non- professional courses the expertise view is not so strong in the graphic design courses and, consequently, this curriculum has not sufficient coherence for training able graphic designers. In revising current curriculum three basic factors should be considered: 1) avoiding non-professional courses in the field of graphic design and focusing on teaching professional courses, 2) focusing on the theory of graphic design and related issues, and 3) paying attention to new technologies in graphic design production and cyberspace graphics.

Illustrated-fiction books are special forms of art that are the combination of text and picture. The relationship between text and picture in this genre is diverse and variegated, and has different effects on the audience; however, little research has been done about it. The goal of this research is to compare text/picture relationship in the selected Iranian and contemporary American-European illustrated-fiction books with respect to the elements of story. The unit of analysis is word, sentence, paragraph, single spread, double spread, context, picture and the whole story. This research is based on Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott’s view. Yet, it is not merely limited to their theory. Therefore, besides descriptive-interpretive approach, it has also applied the interpretive-abstract approach. The investigation of the works is done via Mayring’s (2000) deductive and inductive content analysis. As the consequence of such a reading, the theoretical framework of the mentioned categories is elaborated more. For the first time, some significant and effective findings are obtained with regard to illustrated-fiction books which remind the society of children literature some of the ways through which text and picture are interwoven in this type of literature as a specific form of art.Regarding the interaction of text/picture, this research demonstrates that Iranian and contemporary American-European stories have significant differences. In the contemporary American-European stories, the interaction between text and picture is more artistic, meticulous, dynamic and full-fledge. Contrary to contemporary American-European stories, this interaction in Iranian works seems less subtle and narrative, and there are deficiencies which seem to be the result of separation of writer and illustrator. Among these works, there are similarities such as linguistic independence of text and picture that perhaps reflects the general and fundamental aspects of relationship between text and picture in the illustrated-fiction books.

Sculpture was born in ancient civilizations. In the past eras, due to abundant raw material, especially stone and wood, glorious statues were made which have a significant share in representing various human cultures. Butkara is an ancient site in the eastern borders of Iran which was used by Buddhists in different reigns from 3rd century (BC) to 2nd century (AD). Undoubtedly, most neighboring lands had various kinds of cultural and artistic interactions with each other. Thus, we can consider the amount of such interactions in Butkara site and Persian civilization. Since the most important objects discovered by archaeologists in this area in recent years are Stopas, bas reliefs and various statues, the amount of cultural and artistic interactions in these regions can be found out if we study such objects exactly and compare them with the sculpture of Persian historical period. Such exploration can explain various unsaid issue about the emergence, contacts and expansion of artistic aspects and clarifying a number of ambiguities in this ancient site; in a word, it leads to a new insight for understanding this issue. Hence, the following question is raised: although Butkara was governed under the auspices of an independent government and its artistic styles were under the influence of Buddhist religious thoughts, Greece and Kushani state, why we cannot separate it from the culture and art of Iranian historical period? It seems that though Butkara site was outside political borders of Iran, its proximity to the ancient and great civilization of Iran made its artists and governors pay a lot of attention to the culture of Iran. This matter, in turn, led to Iran’s prominent share in the formation of Butkara culture and art, especially sculpture. Of course, it is most probable that there was a mutual relationship between the two. The data of this study was gathered via library. The aim of this study is to explicate the rate of interaction between sculpture and bas reliefs of Pakistan’s Butkara site and Iranian historical period.

In their arts and handicrafts, Shahsavans of Moghan who are the inheritors of Central Asia culture and art have been influenced by their ancestral originalities as well as neighboring civilizations. In step with immigration and the expansion of their summer lands they have used vastly the ideas and thoughts of the artists whom they met in the creation, processing and distribution of motifs and decorations so that the share of each land’s artists is vividly seen in their works. In the late Qajar time, their cultural transactions entered a new phase. Such changes can be observed in the motifs of hand-woven objects, especially kilims, better than other cultural and artistic domains. Comparing the pattern of Kurgani stripes in Shahsavan kilims with the works of sedentary people woven in the late Qajar time in the province of Ardebil, this study aims to find an answer for these questions: what are the visual features of each of them and which similarities and differences do they have? Thus, the aim of this research is the identification and analysis of features triggering the similarities and differences in such works. The type of this study is qualitative and, regarding its comparative nature, it uses descriptive-analytic method. The date has been gathered via library and field work. The visual analyses have been carried out by referring to 8 indicative and 16 comparative samples of motif details. Comparative findings of motifs imply that Shahsavans are under the influence of sedentary people regarding the composition of patterns and simplification of motifs. On the other hand, they have influenced such people considering decorations and elaborate ornaments. Economic, environmental and social factors as well as tribal immigrations play very significant role in such exchanges.

In the modern art of Iran, painting discourse and poetry discourse (in spite of the ancient artistic tradition) are independent from each other. Nevertheless, poetry and painting sometimes join together; for instance, in the connection between the poetry of Nima Yushij and the painting of Bahman Mohasses. The aim of this paper is to study this connection and also find out the hidden common experience in the works of these two artists. Moreover, via exploring the meaning of “shore” in their works, the roots of the two artists’ experience of modernity is also investigated.The method used in this study is comparative which is based on comparing the discourses of poetry and painting and analyzing the literary themes employed in them.This research aims to show that shore is considered as a deeply lived experience originated from the environment of the two artists which is represented in two different media. The analysis of such representation shows how objective and subjective experiences are conformed to each other. Moreover, “shore” is construed as a metaphor bearing with itself the meaning of modern matter in two aspects. First, fluidity as a metaphor of modern life is displayed in the image of shore and sea in the works of Nima Yushij and Bahman Mohasses. Second, the coastline as a border between sea and land, water and soil, and fluid and solid is a rebellion against dualist certainty.

Glass-working was one of the dominant arts in the Islamic period. In the time of Iranian Seljuks and, contemporaneous with them, Egyptian Fatimids, this art was so innovative that such an era is considered as the glorious period in the history of Islamic glass-working in the two countries. In addition to contemporaneity of Seljuks and Fatimids, economic and cultural relations between the two regions can be considered as the reason behind various kinds of similarities observable in the glass-working of the two regions. Thus, the identification of such similarities is the main aim of this study. The main questions of this study are as following: Which characteristics can be used as the main factors for identifying the glass-works in the two regions? Can the motifs applied on glass-works be considered as identifying factors?The paper investigates the similarities as well as differences between Iran and Egypt in terms of glass-works’ motifs in order to achieve the factors which can be used for distinguishing the glass-works of the two regions. Finding the answer, some of the glass-works of Seljuks and Fatimids during 12th-13th centuries (A.D) are selected and studied.Finally, the results of this study show that, before this time, motifs were not used so much on the glass-works. The influence of Islamic spirit on the art of these two regions led to the creation of calligraphic motifs like prayer for the owner of the vessel, name of the artist and the person who ordered it on the glass-work. Similarities observed in terms of forms and decorations indicate some kinds of technological interactions between Iranian and Egyptian glass-workers during the period under study. Yet, there are obvious differences in some cases which are due to different characteristics of the two regions.