JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL ARTS
Year:2017 | Volume:- | Issue:2 |Papers Count:7

As a type of text and informational document enjoying an ancient history, the Iranian painting provides the researchers with sufficient information on the history, culture and social etiquettes of the Iranians; so conducting a scientific study of such text is considered fundamental in today’ s artistic researches. Encountering with a work of art to achieve logical, accurate results through systematic research has ever been observed by theorists. Hermeneutical approach was introduced to interpret the concept of texts but a fundamental difference has always existed on the quiddity of meaning. Some believe that the meaning of text depends on the audience while others are of the opinion that it is related to the author which leads to the creation of a single or plural meaning in a given text. Objectivists consider the text’ s meaning unchanging and reachable while subjectivists consider it broad, unreachable and definite but everyone can understand it based on his previous knowledge of text. Eric Hirsch, the American intellectual, properly elaborated upon the setbacks of each of the theories and opened up a fresh way for conducting research studies within texts and works. Focusing on Hirsch’ s approach, this essay seeks the meaning of the artwork in its author. Hirsch basically believes that the author’ s objective of the creation of the artwork constructs the meaning of the piece. ‘ The comprehension process’ , he terms the mental processes involved in the method of presentation of a piece of art and during the ‘ interpretation process’ , the artist takes up the pen to share the meaning gained with others. If the researcher takes the process backwards, he can access the meaning of the text and approach it significantly. Depending on time and science, secondary information appear during the study of text which Hirsch calls ‘ implication’ ; therefore, every text contains just one, single meaning and that is the author’ s objective of creating artistic works. To find out the meaning of a painting, the researcher should approach the artist through the study of the historical, social and cultural circumstances at the time of creating the text, study the artist’ s biography, and if possible, asking for the author’ s assistance. This research seeks answers for this one question: how can an artwork be examined from the perspective of its creator? The study aims to find a method to analyze the Iranian miniature. The Iranian miniature can be divided in to two general types: one in which the miniaturist was free to choose his subject and the other, a painting created under specific conditions of the time and the customer’ s taste. To this end, the miniature paintings of Master ‘ Amir Houshang Jazizadeh’-the contemporary painter chosen as the ‘ Eternal Figure’ of Isfahan who has studied and taught the discipline for many years and is fortunately alive – were selected for analysis. The research has been performed through desk study of library resources and conducting interviews as well as description and analysis of the works of the author with the effective participation of the author himself and tests the accuracy of this method via a comprehensive study of one of 200 paintings available at the gallery chosen by the artist himself and a general study of other paintings. The results indicated that the Hermeneutical approach of Hirsch is a suitable method for analyzing and study the Iranian miniature paintings. Holding the meaning of the artworks, the subjects of the paintings are always constant and prominently associated with the miniaturist’ s thoughts and beliefs. In comprehension process, the miniaturist tries to present the meaning from a new perspective and in portraying them, he employs different techniques of interpretation and sharing of their meaning. Ultimately, the study reveals that the processes of comprehending and interpretation of the artworks are variables and the modification of the artwork by the author after some elapse of time, displays alternation in the process of comprehension and interpretation while the subject of the miniature painting (artist’ s intention) or the meaning remains the same.

In etymology and terminology of the Iranian painting style of the contemporary period, unfortunately the inappropriate word 'miniature' has been wrongly institutionalized within the artistic community. Namely, without referring to any specific document or research conducted, many people have not only accepted this foreign word but have also contributed to the promotion and spread of the use of this unprofessional term, thus adding to the misunderstanding of many of the audience of such artworks. The western miniature is totally different in terms of fundamentals and approach with that of the eastern taste and worldview specifically the noble art of Iranian painting and has also portrayed less consistency in material and technical characteristics. On the other hand, and taking into account the characteristics of the Iranian painting, i. e. being 'insightful', ' Thematic', 'structured', 'functional' and 'technical', it might be assumed that except in rare cases such as the small artwork background and some technical subtleties, the western miniature share not so much commonalities with the Iranian painting. But the contemporary Iranian painting, which is the continuation of and in line with the traditional one, has similarities and differences with the previous painting schools and yet enjoys its own specific functions and concepts. Through a comprehensive and professional approach towards the general, classic components the works and styles of the contemporary painters could be analyzed comparatively and their similarities, differences with and distinctive features from the works of traditional Iranian painters be specified. Due to their specific, independent character with that of the of traditional Iranian painting styles, amongst all, the works and style of one of the most prominent contemporary Iranian painters, i. e., Mahmoud Farshchian, have been studied and analyzed comparatively to clarify the proportions and relations existing between the two artistic periods. This paper endeavors to study the trend of creation and evolution of Mahmoud Farshchian’ s style and get a clear idea of its principles as well as theoretical and practical foundations and aims to make a comparative study of the artist’ s painting style with that of the traditional Persian painting styles. Making a comprehensive survey of the artist's style will not only clarify its position as compared to the previous painting schools and help evaluate its relation to the styles of the contemporary era, but also significantly contributes to make further policies and develop the future prospects of Iranian painting. In this study, a collection of non-repetitive texts and para-texts of the artist’ s major and minor books including colored works, with or without identifications, black and white pencil sketches, unpublished works in possession of state museums, private collections and undisclosed locations, making a total of over 538 works created between 1945 to the beginning of 2014, have been studied. Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, this theoretical paper has made a comparative analysis of the features of 'traditional Persian painting' with 'modern Iranian painting'. The theoretical and practical foundations of Farshchian’ s style have been studied for the first time through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary desk study of library resources as well as field studies of the author taking into account all the artworks created (538 pieces) by the artist. Based on the findings, it is concluded that the western miniature, in its principles and viewpoint, is different from the taste and worldview of the eastern art particularly the Iranian one and is more dissimilar with respect to the materials and technical features employed. It could also be assumed that except in rare cases such as the small background of the artwork and some technical subtleties, the western miniature could not possibly share much similarity with the Iranian painting. However, on the word “ Iranian painting’ or better say “ Negargari” which is far more professional and clear than “ miniature” , it should be said that although Negargari is a counterpart to the noble Iranian style of painting, yet we cannot apply the term ‘ traditional Negargari’ to Farshchian’ s artworks because, although they share some commonalities with that of the fundamentals of the noble Iranian traditional painting, yet they possess prominent distinctive features. In every aspect of Iranian painting, Farshchian has employed some innovation and creativity of his own; thus leading to the creation of fresh theoretical and practical foundations that form his own specific, independent style. Taking into account such principles, the works of Farshchian could be called the 'neo Iranian painting' style that has evolved in continuation and in line with the traditions of genuine Iranian painting style.

During the early years of the twentieth century, modernism took over the art scene in the west and consequently, abstract art turned into the most prevailing and the most significant phenomenon in the world of art. However, artistic creation in the practices of western academic disciplines was common in Iraq from the late nineteenth century to 1930s. Shortly after, the Iraqi artists became familiar with modern art movements and abstract painting due to studying in Europe. In Iraq, abstract art reached its summits during the mid-twentieth century which coincided with the strong efforts made towards the formation of a national unity and Iraqi nation. Therefore, it is worth further research to find out how the Iraqi artists created their national art traditions using western abstract art disciplines, or whether Iraqi abstract art is an independent type despite adhering to the examples of the western abstract artworks. The current paper aims to introduce Iraqi abstract art with a focus on abstract features and inspiration sources of modern Iraqi artists in order to appreciate how identity have been represented in Iraqi abstract paintings and what factors have determined the theme and content of the artworks. Hence, the abstract paintings and their relation to the figurative concepts and their representational essence have been discussed. In addition, a number of non-figurative abstract artworks of five modern Iraqi artists from 1950 to 1980 have been chosen to be analyzed and described as the statistical society. Finally, these artworks have been analyzed for their representation of the national identity according to historical, political, and social documents. According to the study, it can be specified that the main narratives of abstract works are based on Iraqi national identity, which alters from Arab nationalism to Iraqi nationalism; in Hashemite Iraq, Arab nationalism or Arab unity movement or pan-Arabism dominated the intellectual atmosphere of Iraq. Since the 1930s, along with the movement of pan-Arabism, the national consciousness was also formed and hence “ pan-Arabism of Iraq” turned into the main national identity in Hashemite Iraq which ultimately insisted on components such as “ Arab” and “ Islamic” Iraqi people. Iraqi nationalism became prominent after World War II and 1950s and the tendency toward regionalism and local nationalism highly accentuated parallel to Arab nationalism. Thus, Iraqi artists managed to create abstract artworks by combining the formal and conceptual components of Islamic, ancient and Mesopotamian heritage and folklore culture with that of modern western art expressions and presentations. In these works of art, calligraphy and Arabic letters, Islamic geometric motifs, symbols and Mesopotamian signs and folkloric elements are boldly used. They all represent Iraqi identity (Arabic-Islamic-Iraqi) despite being non-figurative. The results show that this strong emphasis on “ identity” is in relation to the social, political and intellectual developments in Iraq; because “ identity” has been a major challenge since the formation of Iraq in 1920. Therefore, emphasis on national identity in modern Iraqi art is perfectly in line with the modern Iraq nationalistic discourse. On the other hand, representing “ identity” originates from the nature of Islamic art which, since its advent, have endeavored to represent a different identity from other religions. Islamic geometric art represents a successful attempt of Islam in creating a distinct form of art that is exempt from figurative and iconographic Christian art and represents an Islamic identity. Islamic calligraphy, as one of the most important forms of Islamic art, became a symbol of Islam in the conquered countries due to the necessity of reading Qur'an and saying prayers and copying the Word of God in the early years of Islam. Gradually, the letters lost their relation to readability and letters, calligraphy and artistic representation turned into a way of independent expression in the world of Islam. These new representations still offered the spiritual and the sacred aspects of the Word of God. So far as Islam was considered as the true nature of Arab nationalism and the most important Iraqi cultural heritage and considering the emphasis of Islam on Qur’ an and Arabic language, the Iraqi artists used Arabic letters and calligraphy abundantly in order to give identity to their abstract artworks.

Qajar era is the time of conflict between tradition and modernity. Iran's relations with other countries and the arrival of inventions such as photography contributed much to the progress in the field of arts and culture of this country. Through portraying the real, existing facts, photography is the most important representative of the country’ s modernity during this epoch of time. Photography in Iran was much welcomed and supported by the court artists and particularly the King himself to the extent that it made possible the review of many photographs taken by Naser ad-Din Shah Qajar and his fellow photographers. Many photographers worked in different fields with one of their favorite subjects being making photographs of prominent political figures. Taking note of human beings and illustrating figures became popular during the Qajar period and at this point, many painters and designers utilized the benefits that photography provided. Photo turned into an efficient means of portraying the realities of the face and body and created a new style of art. The stable nature of photos provided the time required for the exact simulation of the subject individual and gave the artist free hand to more precisely illustrate and attend to details. Losing its ages-old identity, the traditional Persian art emerged in a more modern way in some works of painting and lithography in this specific era. It was in the artworks of this period that shading and perspective as well as depiction of human subjects and real scenes in paintings and prints drew near to those of the Western styles. The invention of photography significantly influenced the art of painting and printing of books and newspapers and, of course, established a new style of art such as decoration in photography. Perhaps such result would have not been achieved without the intervention of photography and the accurate and detailed replication of the appearance of the subjects would have been impossible. The fact that the reproduction of human dispositions and simulation of characters in paintings and works of lithography became so accurate indicates the ability of the illustrators to use photographs as a tool in creating their works. Studying the surviving documents and images of the Qajar era draws the attention towards the popularity of photography because so many works along with their photos have remained to date. Even in some cases, a single picture was used to create several works of art (painting or lithography). In some other cases, the teachers painted the faces and the students were given the task to do the rest of the job. In paintings and lithographs (of faces and figures), the court men and the king were depicted more than ordinary people which well points out that art was at the disposal of the royalty. The artist of the time was not that free to choose his subjects, but was allowed to follow his own imagination to design parts of the pictures such as the details of the outfits, background and even coloring. Qajar Art is the art of the royalty wherein to satisfy the taste of the court men, the lithographers and painters created artworks to portray the royal splendor. With the greatest meticulousness and delicacy, the artists attended to all the details of the picture and recreated them in the best and most natural way in their artworks. Such precision could be observed in figure paintings or in ‘ Sharaf’ and ‘ Sherafat’ newspapers. Therefore, having made its way through to Iranian art, photography left a profound impact on illustrating the pictures of the nobility and later on the ordinary men. The results of the studies conducted indicated that photo, in addition to affecting the simulation of portraits, was the founder of verisimilitude in the works of later artists.

Typography is an essential tool in visual communication and thus, selecting the appropriate typeface is crucial to express and convey a message. Perhaps using the word ‘ character’ in the field of typeface and typeface design seems a bit odd and weird; but in fact just like human beings, fonts and their numerous forms can take on various characters such as ‘ childish’ , ‘ female’ , ‘ male’ , ‘ kind’ , ‘ upset’ , etc. Such character development for typefaces and recognizing them can help significantly to the design and use of Persian fonts. Since most of the studies conducted in the field of typeface design focus on legibility, less attention has been paid to other features. This is the main reason behind the current latency or even regression in designing new functional fonts and their optimal use. Therefore, there is a necessity for conducting a research to better recognize the characteristic of typefaces as per their typographical and aesthetic features. In this regard, the paper at hand focuses on the visual expression of typefaces and their designing features. One of the main features that distinguish this research from others in the field of designing Persian fonts is conducting field studies and the use of statistical analysis according to the data obtained for the recognition and classification of various font characters. Consequently, pre-planned questionnaires were distributed among the residents of Larestan as well as the students of Islamic University of Yazd taking into account a series of criteria such as: gender, age, education and etc. Out of approximately 100 questionnaires circulated, 90 individuals responded voluntarily and this number of participants may reflect high precision in calculations. Likewise, from among the most popular typefaces used in various forms of media such as newspapers, books, websites and etc., 50 ones were chosen out of which 18 were classified in different groups as per criteria such as: abiding by the rules of traditional calligraphy, being monoline, regular or irregular and etc. Ultimately, considering some personality traits such as: legible, happy, creative, attractive, slipshod, calm, friendly and self-confident, 14 typefaces were divided in four particular groups. Then aiming to identify typeface design characteristics of Persian fonts considering their unique features, their typographical and aesthetic features were examined separately first collectively then individually. The typographical features included: legibility, X-height proportion, ascender and descender proportions, typeface weight and etc. The aesthetic characteristics comprised of: details, elaborateness, nature of fonts and harmony on each of which this study shall comment scientifically and statistically. The result of the statistical analysis as well as the structural, typographical and aesthetic analysis of the typefaces and studying the results in association to the other indicated the existence of a relationship between character development in typeface design as well as typographical and aesthetic features, some of which are briefly as follows: 1. The larger in ascender, the smaller in descender and lighter in weight, the resulting typefaces will be more legible. 2. Heavy weight is the most important and most prominent element leading to the emergence of typefaces possessing ‘ explicit and decisive’ character; while they share commonalities with that of legible characters in other typographical and aesthetic features. 3. To create a ‘ happy’ typeface, the X-height and ascender should be larger with the descender as smaller as possible. Considering the above points one could realize that factors such as X-height, ascender and descender can greatly affect the development of numerous, various typeface characters. Therefore, according to the results achieved, one can contribute to the creation of more beautiful fonts to be used in different visual media through better identification of the characters and their proper use. Hopefully, through providing a fresh approach towards the recognition and identification of different typeface characteristics, this research could assist those interested in typeface design creation contribute to the completion of this study and employ their own creativities and innovations to better serve the field of designing functional, Persian fonts.

If we look around through an artist's investigative eye, we shall perceive every object and element as a combination of lines, points, surfaces and volumes; Elements which are referred to as visual elements in visual arts. Each visual element of frame and image composition can play a distinct role in conveying a specific meaning. Unquestionably, line is the most readily available and the most important element found in our environment. Each frame of our world is packed with lines that make up the surfaces and volumes of our surrounding areas. Each line infuses its own meaning and concept in the frame. For example, horizontal and vertical lines are in conflict, a vertical line is exactly in an upright position on horizontal line, conveying a sense of dynamism and height in the picture. In contrast, a horizontal line conveys a sense of coldness and stillness in the frame. Now if we analyze frames making up the body of a movie by transferring illusion of motion to the audience through an analytic view and an approach to the visual arts, we may realize that each such frame itself can serve as a window that conveys a concept to the audience. In this respect, the use of visual elements can play a significant role in conveying the image sense to the audience. In other words, the director can employ a mise-en-scè ne arrangement of the scene objects to convey a sense of uneasiness, dispersion or altered mental or social space to the audience by creating segments, broken and angular lines. This article endeavors to demonstrate the impact of visual arts in cinematic mise-en-scè ne through analyzing Asghar Farhadi’ s movies such as “ The Beautiful City” , “ The Past” and “ A Separation” . The reason for selecting Farhadi’ s movies as case study in this paper is that when a director such as him obtains lofty awards like the Academy Award for best Foreign Language Film, he has definitely been able to convey the sense and concept of his movies in the form of image to the audience who don’ t understand the movie’ s original language. Consequently, analyzing the mise-en-scè ne of his films with an approach towards visual arts can be of great assistance to this research. In this study, the impact of lines created by objects or actors have been studied via examining the movie frames in these three films and also by analyzing mise-en-scè ne and the impact of lines in creating depth of field in the semantic space. In addition, this study aims to illustrate the significance of the implication of visual arts' principles in cinema through combining the features of visual arts in cinema and studying the mise-en-scè ne of these three movies. The study also endeavors to display the fact that visual elements, specifically lines, can help convey feelings through mise-en-scè ne in cinema. Also, the use of mise-en-scè ne based on and through the employment of a variety of lines and their features as well as their psychological, visual properties can assist directors transmit feelings. As the one determining the mise-en-scè ne, the director should have comprehensive information on the features and effects of visual elements and particularly line, as one of the most important elements, to be able to use an appropriate stage setting and proper arrangements to convey feelings to the audience. Therefore, the result of this research reveals a new dimension of the key role of visual arts in cinema.

The issue of fashion and costume design is a core subject within the Iranian cultural discourses. The paper at hand mainly deals with this question that how the social events and the discourses arising from it have influenced and directed the trends of fashion and dress designs? The basic theory of this paper followed a process-researching methodological approach in social changes that occurred after the Islamic Revolution and its effect on the fashion paradigms. With the advent of the Islamic Revolution (1978), the black ‘ Chador’ became a representation of an ideological current, as a negation of social distinction between the rich and the poor clothing as well as the symbol of resistance to the former regime. During this period, the ‘ fashion aversion’ paradigm, in the sense of people’ s indifference to fashion, was the dominant idea behind selecting dresses, implying the inclination towards a simple life and refuting the fashion class distinction. By the end of the war (1988) and in the duration of reconstruction of the society, women enrolled in social activities. In the beginning of 1990s, the social presence of women increased and Hijab revealed its limiting features in performing physical activities more; hence, long and loose ‘ Mantos’ became more common. The ‘ fashion aversion’ paradigm formed in this period as a means of rejecting cultural invasion in selecting costumes, through focusing on Hijab and formal dress as an Iranian traditional culture. During the reform era (1997-2005), the civil society had to not only make political choices but also democratic dress code ones within itself. Diverse clothing choices available contributed to the modification of monotonous Chador color as well as the uniformity of Manto, in a way that at the beginning of 2000s, it resulted in the emergence of a wide range of colors and dresses. Clothing turned into an indication of personal will and political liberty; therefore, costumes, particularly that of the women's, became diversified significantly during the political reform era. Manto, which partly served as a unified female cover during 1990s, developed later as an aesthetic one. Its semiotic system changed in a way that it became the symbol of distinction and variety by means of the creation and innovation in pattern, sewing and fashion design more than being a symbol of unity in the beginning of 2000s. Developments of this period led to the formation of fashion tendency paradigm that was looking for a kind of aesthetic Hijab following the body released from an official discourse with a focus on the diversity in dresses and choices. But the political critics, with its emphasis on political unification (as it was in 1980s) or cultural traditionalism (as it was in 1990s), raised the idea of “ enjoining good and forbidding wrong” to show that the development of tendency to fashion was the result of western cultural invasion and the satellite became the main factor influencing that. After the political change (2005) and the rebirth of fundamentalism, cultural values returned to the circumstances prevailing at the beginning of the revolution and once again, clothing became the center of attention and the use of national Chador became an up to date issue. The plan of chastity and Hijab was approved in Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution and police force performed it as a project and strategy to ensure social security and was taken against the poorly veiled or 'bad Hijab', but its examples were so controversial that the National Institute of Fashion and Clothing was established (2006) in order to determine the exact meaning of suitable dress as well as national and Islamic fashion. During this period, the Islamic fashion tendency paradigm was formed to unify the standards of Islamic clothing on one hand and recognizing the class distinctions and personal choices on the other. However, the policies determined for controlling the dress codes didn't allow the emergence of an opportunity to grow variety in fashion designs. This paper explains different paradigms such as 'anti-fashion', 'fashion aversion', 'fashion tendency' and 'Islamic fashion tendency' that are formed within the vicissitudes of the patterns of 'combative veil', 'religious veil', 'traditional veil' and 'aesthetical veil' which have been formed in the context of political and social developments in Iran.