Atlanta, Georgia: Deljou Art Group, 2000. 1st Edition, Hardbound, about 11.5 inches tall by 12 inches wide, 160 pages. Primarily an art book, with a short section of text at the rear. All paintings are shown in color.

Emanuel: Vigil of a Winter's Moon

Abbas Daneshvari

Emanuel Babak

Deljou Art Group

In the medieval Muslim world, the dragon was the most frequently represented fabulous beast. This applied across styles and media and in both sacred and secular contexts. Yet its prominence is marked by seemingly contradictory representations. Like Plato's "Pharmakon,"; the dragon was imbued with antithetical meanings: as it stood for both the darkness of the eclipse and the light of God, the satanic and the divine, the transcendent and the earthly. The "yin" and the "yang" of Islam were embodied in the dragon, whose fire was the hell of destruction and also the blessed light of the divine. The dragon thus represented one of those exceptional and mysterious symbols that explained the more baffling phenomena such as creation, chaos and order, furthermore signifying amalgamations of dichotomous forces whose balance made life and the understanding of life possible. Through rigorous and extensive research of historical, literary and exegetical sources, Daneshvari explores the dual symbolism of this intriguing central motif of Islamic iconography. Research to date has focused on the dark side of this mythical creature, as an eclipse monster, but here, "Of Serpents and Dragons in Islamic Art," seeks to re-balance this. Representations of dragons on mosques and other holy structures, gateways to cities, the thrones of rulers, the wings of angels and candleholders are perplexing if the dragon is viewed only as a threatening or demonic icon. Daneshvari solves this puzzle by arguing that the dragon s primary meaning is as a producer and a symbol of light and protection. He further investigates the astrocosmological significance of dragon's iconography, its diverse hybrid appearances and the double-edged metaphor of opium that represented both the dragon and the only cure to its fiery bite. Identifying the dragon as signifier of the navel of the Earth, or the place of God s creation, it also resolves one of its most mystifying representations flanking the enthroned ruler. This book is a ground-breaking and original contribution and essential reading for scholars and researchers of Islamic and Art History.

Of Serpents and Dragons in Islamic Art: An Iconographical Study

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Mazda Pub

The contemporary arts of Iran have yet to live across many zones of criticism, debate, and philosophical understanding on the way to more widespread and long-term notice. Nevertheless, at this crossroads, Iran s contemporary arts especially photography, the genius of its artistic expression bespeak a wholly different frame of vision and production than that of any other time or place. Although a great deal of research and work is necessary to determine the aesthetic and historical significance of this current display, we may be assured that the so-far-generated polemics regarding its place and meaning have laid the foundation for its enduring significance not only in Iran but also worldwide. This book exemplifies the nontranscendent, unpretentious, and liberated path of contemporary Iran s art production and indicates an inward freedom from conventions and academic aesthetic themes. The honesty and authenticity of most of Iran s contemporary productions, be they in the works of Shirin Aliabadi, Mohammad Ghazali, Sadegh Tirafkan, Parastou Forouhar, Taraneh Hemami, Mandana Moghaddam and others discussed in this book is, when compared to Iran s earlier art, phenomenal. For, rarely has so much of a period s art appeared so simple yet turned out to be so complex. Mohammad Ghazali s Where the Heads of the Renowned Rest and Shirin Aliabadi s Miss Hybrid, among many others discussed in the book, prove this point. Ghazali s urban images appear at first to be ordinary, quotidian photography, until after some scrutiny, one enters the horizon of his profound metaphysical subversions. Aliabadi, who may be viewed as playful and even superficial, represents one of those interstices of play where the paradox of desire and control, of simulation and dissimulation, have made transparent both the microcosm and macrocosm of Iran s culture. Her images are filled with remembrances of past psychologies that can be measured, albeit subtly, beneath the façade of the work s modern females. This book also explores how contemporary art should be viewed in terms not only of what is there but also of what is allowed to be there. The prescriptions for artistic expression are to a great extent shaped by the proscriptions of a period of time, that is, by the sociopolitical reach of governments and their traditions. Neda Razavipour and Shahab Fotouhi have shown profound awareness of this fact in Census by posting at Gallery 13 all the documentation required for the official permit to go through a feat not that different from many of Christo s recordings, which intended to show that the final product or the signified content is to a great extent a byproduct of institutional rules. It is amazing that within the strictest of institutional proscriptions, the contemporary artists of Iran have, for the most part, managed to chart new aesthetic and iconographic paths. The complexity of Iran s contemporary life and thus its art is necessarily sodden with tensions and conflicts that, given the context s rigid proscriptions, have produced a theatre of signs, evading and avoiding official obstacles. Therefore, as in the works of Tirafkan, Yunessi, Danaeifar, Kowsari, and Golshiri, though they demonstrate a variety of methodologies, we find a radical reformulation of signs as theatrical symbols. In these works the epistemology of cognition is bypassed so that meaning, highly discursive, may not be easily codified. Though political demands have vitiated freedom of expression, new tactics and strategies of communication have both overcome the State s demands and enriched the various arts and their meanings.

Amazingly Original: Contemporary Iranian Art at Crossroad

Contemporary Iranian Photography edited by Abbas Daneshvari offers five essays with interpretive comments on the photography of post-1980s Iran, including the emerging style and concepts of the field. The authors note that this art has shown unprecedented innovative, sophisticated approaches in the face of historic barriers to authentic expression, such as conflicts and contrasts within Iranian culture, religion, and government. Although some of the approaches are intricate and philosophically subtle, they yield their complex metanarrative under Daneshvari s deft hand to reveal underlying themes of gender, identity, Truth, historical values, and current social polemics.

Contemporary Iranian Photography: Five Perspectives

Photography & Video

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Abbas Daneshvari. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Abbas Daneshvari

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Abbas Daneshvari. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Emanuel: Vigil of a Winter's Moon

Of Serpents and Dragons in Islamic Art: An Iconographical Study

Amazingly Original: Contemporary Iranian Art at Crossroad

Contemporary Iranian Photography: Five Perspectives