UC Irvine

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Beyond the Framed Image: Contemporary Iranian Art from Production to Exhibition

By Deanna June Kashani

Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Studies

University of California, Irvine, 2018

Professor Bridget R. Cooks, Chair

In this dissertation, I analyze a diverse set of Iranian art exhibitions through art historical

and ethnographic methodologies and investigate the strategies that Iranian art professionals have used to reclaim the public audience they lost during the years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Artists approached the problem of inadequate public exhibition opportunities and art discourse in this postrevolutionary period in various ways—by working with government institutions, private galleries, underground spaces, private museums, and creating public art outside of institutional limitations. Through analysis of the exhibitions as case studies, I present an overview of artistic survival in contemporary Iran in which art professionals are taking control of their narratives and the future of the art scene. Overall, Iranian art professionals seek to be experimental, autonomous, and connected with the interests of the local community in their practices. While the art sphere is itself divided about the best ways to exhibit art within the current political and cultural climate, I argue that this multi-vocal characteristic signifies a healthy democratic process as artists navigate the challenges of the domestic and global art worlds.