نیر طهوری

Fashion is an obvious embodiment of the cultural and social identity of any society, which is especially of great importance in the modern era. Today, fashion brands are presenting their designs by relying on existing drafts such as ancient archetypes, myths and political, social and cultural thoughts in order to attract the audience and increase popularity and sales. This research has been conducted to address fashion discourse and the question of how to influence the discourse system of society through fashion, relying on Yuri Lotman's Semiosphere Theory, to examine three advertising posters of Dior brand. To answer this question, the research hypothesis is: Fashion can influence the social system by using value structures and challenging discourse. The results indicate that fashion as a semiosphere can pass through its borders and filters from other semiospheres at different times with different thoughts, and it is affected and presents itself. Borders in the semiosphere like a permeable membrane can turn "foreign matter" into "familiar matter". In this research, it is shown that semiospheres with the same topics in different eras have different cultural meanings. In one era, they have a sacred archetypal and mythological concept, and in another era, they have the meaning of entertainment and astrology, while they are described as literary and artistic works in another era. Finally, they are rooted in a specific concept or thought, but they are considered as precursors of each other and find different semantic cues.

One of the most important and challenging issues in Orientalists’ research about art historiography is to investigate the nature and place of Eastern art in comparison with Western art, and how they interact with each other during different historical periods. Strzygowski and Pope were among the most prominent Western researchers who, in the early 20th century, investigated the evolution of Eastern art, focusing on Iranian art and its interactions with Western art. Considering that the views of these two researchers have had significant effects on Western and Iranian researchers in the field of art history, the recognition and analysis of these views is necessary to examine the evolution of Iranian art historiography. Therefore, in the present article, the views of these two Orientalists regarding the historiography of Eastern art are measured and compared with each other. This research is fundamental and theoretical, and a descriptive-analytical method has been used. Data collection in the current research was based on library research. The findings of this research show that the origin, method and approach as well as the sources used by these two researchers were not the same. The results of this research indicate that Strzygowski and Pope have paid attention to the independent and influential nature of Iranian art in comparison with Western art from two different perspectives. The special feature of Strzygowski’s point of view is its emphasis on the influence of the historical flow of Eastern art on the late ancient arts of Western Europe and medieval arts. On the other hand, Pope gives more importance to the examination of oriental art, focusing on Iranian art and emphasizing the formalist aesthetic aspects. Although Pope did not explicitly mention Strzygowski’s influence on his opinions, it seems that Strzygowski’s racial thoughts as well as his view on the role of immigration in the evolution of art history were the main basis of Pope’s view on the superiority of Iranian-Aryan art.

By studying Islamic wisdom texts and the prefaces of calligraphy treatises, one can understand that within the tradition of Islamic calligraphy education and training, individuals fundamentally regard art and every human profession and action as a pathway to achieving human perfection.In Islamic wisdom, the correlation between thought and action illustrates that knowledge derived from thought not only exists as a conceptual idea in the mind of a Muslim, but, when put into practice, it leads to the personal elevation and perfection of the individual. Thus, it differentiates knowledge from useless science, and action based on knowledge becomes the way for an individual's existential transformation towards perfection. However, in the Western world, particularly following the beginning of the Renaissance, wisdom was relegated to the realm of common rationality among humans. Consequently, the domain of rationality has been fragmented into separate unites. According to Kant's scientific tradition, the three faculties of knowledge, the feelings of pleasure and pain, and the faculty of will were respectively attributed to pure reason, judgment power, and practical reason. According to this view, art is arisen of feeling and is cognition with power judgment.In return, the foundations of traditional wisdom and its resurgence in the perennial contemporary philosophy’s school, is based in tradition, sacred knowledge, and spirituality. Viewed from this vantage point, the development of Islamic art and calligraphy, guided by non-historical and non-temporal principles, is influenced by the truth of religion and the essence of Islam. The prefaces and treatises on calligraphy education left by traditional calligraphers serve as evidence of this wisdom and spirituality. The art of calligraphy holds a special place among the numerous branches of art in the Islamic world. In the early 20th century, German researcher, Ernst Kuhnel, raised certain issues about Islamic calligraphy. It is necessary to analyze and critique his view with a different approach in order to separate the correct viewpoints from the incorrect ones, while avoiding the prevailing spirit of his thoughts. This can be done by explaining his thought in an organized framework. The purpose of this study is to analyze and to conduct explanatory critique of the position and importance of Islamic calligraphy from the views of Ernst Kuhnel. This study’s questions are that how has Kuhnel explained the relation between Islam, art, and the theoretical foundations of calligraphy? Furthermore, what are the differences and similarities between his views and what is mentioned in the treatises of various calligraphy periods?The research method is descriptive-analytical-critical. The method of gathering data is using library and documentary sources. The set works of the German Orientalist Ernst Kuhnel that specifically are his views about Islamic calligraphy have been gathered. Since some of Kuhnel's explanations about Islamic art include calligraphy, as a subcategory of Islamic art, his views about Islamic art are also to be discussed. Kuhnel's views about the meaning and spiritual nature of Islamic art and calligraphy have been analyzed and critiqued  with  critical view to the subject based on the prevalent insight of this research, the traditional wisdom of contemporary traditional philosophers. It is placed in the tables for comparison. Regarding the traditional critique, both the typical method of this attitude, and the treatises and educational prefaces of calligraphers are used as testimonies and justifications of the criticisms. The research finding indicates Kuhnel's views as a positivist researcher. Although he regards the art of Islamic calligraphy as being based on the Book of Revelation, the Holy Quran, he believes that Islam has limiting role on figurative art, consequently stimulating the growth of calligraphic art to prominence. He claims that the function of calligraphy primarily revolves around serving the power and preferences of rulers, under the influence of Islamic ideology. In return, in traditional philosophy’s view, while religious teachings may impose certain limitations on art, attributing ideology to Islam is considered a fallacy and serves as the source of other misconceptions in the interpretation of knowledge and art derived from its texts. Islam possesses a holistic nature and cannot be equated with human beliefs and solutions, nor can its precepts be extended to encompass those beliefs and solutions. The spiritual wisdom of Islam is manifested in the form and essence of calligraphic art. Unfortunately, due to the reduction of religion to the level of ideology, this crucial aspect has often been overlooked. It is evident from the treatises on calligraphy that the components of calligraphic art harbor a spiritual dimension, and its function is symbolic. The artist, through calligraphy, attains knowledge, pursues perfection, and embodies it within the art itself. Regrettably, this particular aspect seems to have been eluded in Kuhnel's studies, as he has overlooked the explicit emphasis on Islamic spirituality in the treatises of calligraphy.

The study and investigation of Islamic architecture with different ways of thinking, including traditionalism, historicism, and phenomenology, shows the importance of the subject from the view of Western researchers. Each of these schools of thought, while there are similarities between them, tries to express the results of their studies on Islamic architecture from their perspective. Paying attention to the difference of opinions of these views, while there are commonalities, raises these questions: How have each of these methods defined Islamic architecture? How does the difference in their reading style in understanding Islamic architecture help to understand the subject? The present study, with a comparative study of two methods of phenomenology and historicism about Islamic architecture, focusing on the opinions of Henri Stierlin and Oleg Grabar, seeks to show how each of these two views has defined Islamic architecture, and what are their similarities and differences between them? From the perspective of phenomenologists, the works of Islamic art originate from a special world that is characterized by religious teachings; A world where monotheism, supernatural and divine worlds, and religious and spiritual concepts are among its most essential elements. Historicists think of Islamic art and architecture as a historical thing that is analyzed by examining the time of occurrence and the factors (social, political, etc.) before and after it, and present a worldly and non-mystical analysis of these works. Assuming that each of Henri Stierlin's phenomenological and Oleg Grabar's historicism approaches provides a different definition of the relationship between Islam and architecture, the findings of the research show that despite the fact that Grabar pays attention to the Qur'an and the tradition of the Prophet and mentions Islam and its effects as a cultural component along with historical, political, regional ones, but from his point of view, Islamic art is an art that has nothing to do with the religion of Islam, and the relationship between Islam and art and architecture does not have a special meaning from a religious point of view. He avoids attributing symbolic religious meanings to Islamic architectural works, without relying on evidence, place and time, and only relying on theoretical discussion. While Stierlin tries to find the relationship between Islamic works and eternal truths with a meta-historical and semantic view. He considers Islamic art and architecture to be derived from the essence and teachings of Islam and considers the religious component to be the factor in the formation of the mosque building that most of its elements have a symbolic and eternal nature. Both researchers believe that Islamic art and architecture have been influenced by the elements of other civilizations. However, their disagreement is about how these elements accept the new meaning. Grabar considers the acceptance of a new meaning by being placed in a new context. While Stierlin considers the acceptance of a new meaning under the influence of Islamic religion and beliefs. The current research, using a descriptive-analytical method with a comparative approach, has studied formative elements and components of the mosque from the phenomenological point of view of Henri Stierlin and the historicism of Oleg Grabar.

Along with the evolution of theories about the architectural design process, the creation of the concept as an important part of this complex process has always been considered in design research. Therefore, it is necessary to teach architectural conceptualization in parallel with the teaching of design skills and architectural knowledge. Although significant research has been conducted in this field, it is not sufficient to apply the design process in accordance with the necessary skills of the architectural profession. From an interdisciplinary way, this research attempts to improve the quality of the architectural design process with reference to conceptual metaphors in a mixed approach. In the qualitative part, based on the analysis of scientific sources and logical reasoning, 4 components of searching for mental concepts, identifying and choosing concepts, matching the architectural concept with selected concepts and developing the concept form the conceptual structure of the research. Then, based on this structure, an exercise was implemented in the 3rd architectural workshop and evaluated by three expert judges. Data was analyzed quantitatively by independent t-test method and SPSS software version 26. The findings showed that using conceptual metaphors in the teaching of the architectural design process is beneficial, and this mental shift from architecture to literature has a meaningful relationship with the quality of the design process. The results of the research confirm that the proposed method is significantly effective both in structuring the design problem and in achieving a concept that fits the 4 mentioned components.

"Superheroes" are one of the most important products of popular culture, which with unique costumes and powers, have been spread since the second quarter of the 20th century in comic strips and comic books, and in the last twenty years, they have been one of the dominant filmmaking trends in Hollywood. Regardless of critical views, these films have affected the economic cycle of cinema, and have become a dominant discourse and a common language, so this article is trying to provide a coherent interpretation of them. In this study, based on the ideas of Walter Benjamin, German theorist related to the Frankfurt School, about the disenchantment of myth in modern culture, the anxieties caused by urbanization in superhero movies are focused on, and the psychological, social and political crises after the attack to New York on September 11, 2001, has been examined as one of the most important reasons for the prosperity of this type of cinema. The study method is based on library data, and describing and analyzing the visual and thematic features of the movies adapted from the more well-known superhero characters, including Superman and Batman (from DC) and Spider-Man (from Marvel), separately. In the conclusion of this study, the anxieties caused by the dominance of technology over nature, crime and terrorism, anarchism, the culture industry and human distortion in capitalist society, aliens and the fear of death and the destruction of humanity, is considered as the most important factors in the demythology of superheroes in today's cinema.

Fashion is a global industry that pollutes the environment by using natural resources. Sustainable fashion is a solution to deal with the environmental risks of the fashion industry, with the aim of preventing the waste of resources in the production and consumption sectors. The data of applied and descriptive-analytical study are collected through library research, are analyzed based on semantic semiotic approach of discourse in light of Jacques Fontaine's theory of transparency and prosthesis and Landowski’s adaptation system. The main issue is to see how fashion can create the conditions for a discourse that allows the transition from a system of destruction to an ideal system of the environment. Based on this, seven examples of brand activities have been purposefully selected and examined in terms of environmental sustainability and transparency. The results show that stimuli such as celebrities and environmentalists with their actions are able to create a desirable discourse system. It is suggested that governments and the private sectors establish companies to collect old textiles using the theory of transparency and adaptation and explanation of fashion prostheses and their relationship in the sustainable fashion industry, and  protect the environment as well as contribute to job creation.

Isfahan's Chaharbagh School-Mosque is considered as a valuable relic of the art and architecture of the Safavid era, which has preserved its splendor after more than three centuries. Knowing the basics and principles used in the design and construction of this building and the arrangements thought for its social and historical meaning can be a model for today's architecture, in order to achieve excellence in terms of form and meaning. The purpose of the current research is to explain and analyzing the various aspects of stability and reliability of this building and to discover its unique physical and spatial features. The mentioned research is descriptive-analytical in terms of method, and data collection has been done in documentary and field form. For this purpose, the climatic, social, economic, historical and aesthetic aspects are analyzed and evaluated in a qualitative way, taking into account the physical, semantic and spiritual characteristics of the building. The results show that the building of the Chaharbagh School mosque not only considered the climatic characteristics from an environmental point of view to provide a pleasant environment compatible with the surrounding nature, but it was also socially and economically stable. The use of Islamic art in the arrays of covering surfaces has made the building beautiful in terms of beauty. In such a way that you can see a dynamic and lasting treasure of art and architecture in it.

Mythical genre is one of the genres of Iranian cinema that, despite its importance among genres and cinematic currents, as well as its undeniable impact on cinema audiences, has not received much attention from film experts and critics. The subject of this research is to study the role and influence of Iranian screenwriter and director Abdolhossein Spanta in creating this kind of cinema. Spanta was one of the few Iranian directors who, with his knowledge and awareness of the culture and history of ancient Iran, turned to the emerging art of cinema. Relying on this support and subconscious, he established a kind of filmmaking in Iranian cinema that became known as a myth. Although his presence in Iranian cinema, both as a screenwriter and as a director, was limited to five films, this seemingly small activity had a tremendous impact on the Iranian filmmaking movement, both at the time and after his life. This research tries to propose a theory in which Abdolhossein Spanta, as one of the first Iranian directors and filmmakers, was the founder of the foundations of Iranian mythical cinema. The research method in this research is typological and based on Spanta's works, library and internet resources. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to achieve his influence on the emergence of a kind of myth in Iranian cinema.

The sun as a mysterious and magnificent element has had several symbols and still has which due to its respect and sanctity among different religions has always contained different meanings and symbolic patterns. The sun and its other relevant symbols in religions like Zoroaster's and Christianity because of being influenced by "Mehr" religion (Mitraism) has had a lot of changes over time. Since there was a close relationship between Sassanids and Byzantine emperor, this study tends to consider visual and conceptual similarities and differences of this icon, the sun, in Zoroaster's and Christianity in Byzantine emperor based on a comparative study on those religions, this result can be inferred that in Iran “Mehr” known as “Goddess sun” and in Christianity was just considered as “God the sun”. The sun has been sacred and respectful in Zoroaster's and Christianity, and its origin goes back to mythological periods importance of worshipping this resuscitative element and its similarities to IzadMehr (God) has caused gradually to be considered the some, but due to oppositions from Sassanids against Mehr. Customs adopted from Mehr religion were included in Zoroaster's religion nothing was mentioned about Mehr. Since then this religion under the named of “Mitraism” and many other sun elements and symbols like cross, light, halo with different patterns penetrated in Christianity. Hence, similarities in Sun’s symbolic patterns and shapes existing both religions and differences as well which mostly belong to concepts, customs and traditions in both religions. This study has been done based on library and document any method.

Serious efforts to understand the nature of Islamic art and architecture in the West began with the formation of the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century and culminated in the nineteenth century. In the first half of the nineteenth century, researchers and historians looked at Islamic art with an ethnographic approach, emphasizing the role of climate, local geography, and racial characteristics as determining factors in the formation of art and architecture. In the second half of the century, they investigated Islamic art to find and determine general, universal, transhistorical, and timeless rules and ignoring climatic elements and ethnic characteristics. In the late nineteenth, Hegelian thought came to dominate the writing of art history, and Islamic art and architecture, based on the philosophical teachings of Hegel's history, were examined based on historical algebra and certainty. This approach emphasizes the unity of history and considers art and all human intellectual and cultural manifestations to come from a single spirit. Therefore, with such an approach, the works of Islamic art and architecture are considered as the continuation of Byzantine and Sassanid art based on the chronological sequence. From the middle of the twentieth century, in addition to the Sassanid and Byzantine roots of Islam art, the role of Islam and its connection with the works of art and architecture was also considered. Some researchers of Islamic art have considered it to be influenced by the ontology of Islam and have given its elements a religious and transcendent meaning. An example is Titus Burckhardt who explained the common values and characteristics of the traditional originated art, especially the Islamic tradition from the standpoint of religious revival called the traditionalism school; And the path of modern historians in the context of Orientalism, such as the Grabar model, which denies traditionalists disbelief in history and the existence of purely transhistorical truths in Islamic art. Now, since the mosque is the first and most important manifestation of Islamic buildings in which Islamic art has been formed; most of the studies by researchers and historians are about building a mosque. The present study deals with the comparative study of mosque architecture in the views of Titus Burckhardt of the traditionalist movement and Oleg Grabar of the historians. Despite the methodological differences in Burckhardt and Grabar's approaches and their interpretation and explanation of the architectural principles and elements of the mosque building, they explain Islamic architecture, especially elements of the mosque according to the role of religious component and both believe that the mosque is built on the foundations of other religions. Now the question is what influence their views have on the definition of Islamic architecture? Findings show that Burckhardt believes that the formation of architecture and its elements have been derived from the Islamic traditions while Grabar refers to Islam as a cultural component along with historical and social ones. The aim of this study is to find commonalities and differences between these two perspectives in Islamic architecture according to their specific approach.

Allegory is one of the most prominent rhetorical styles in Persian literature of Iran and it can be said that allegory is also considered a method of storytelling and narration that includes a non-fiction theme with a cover of narrative elements and gives it a narrative form. Abdolsamad's paintings, which in the beginning were directly used and taken from the traditions of Iranian painting and the Tabriz school, have gradually tended towards a kind of realism, and his recent works indicate a powerful realistic approach. The purpose of this study is to analyze the allegorical drawings of Abdolsamad in Shahnameh. The method of this descriptive-analytical research and a number of drawings in the style of Iran and India have been studied. The results showed that despite the presence of artists such as Abdolsamad, the Gurkhani school was invented and reached maturity and prosperity. The use of allegory has played a role and has taken into account the specific rules and traditions of painting.

The art of bedding is one of the Iranian arts that have been popular in Iranian architecture for a long time .Plaster molding patterns in the architecture of historical houses, at first glance, have a decorative aspect and express a visual beauty, but a deep look at these motifsreveals their inner and symbolic meanings. The variety used in the plaster molding of Boroujerdi House is very remarkable and expresses Islamic-Iranian values of its time in Kashan. The main objectives of this study are to identify and to determine the typology of plaster molding patterns of Boroujerdi House as well as to understand their inner symbolic meanings. Accordingly, the main questions of the research are: 1) what are the types of plaster molding designs in Boroujerdi House? 2) What are the symbolic meanings of the designs used in them? The results show that these patterns, which include plants, human figures, animals, and supernatural beings, sometimes imply mythical and sacred symbolic meanings. The research method is descriptive-analytical and involved field studies as well as library studies; hence, first the accurate and appropriate imaging of the beds was done, and then based on the library studies, each role was analyzed and examined semantically. In this route, through graphic software, the position of each role is specified on the house architectural plan map as well as on the images.

The present study deals with the comparative study of Islamic architecture in the views of Titus Burckhardt and Oleg Grabar. Since the spiritual wisdom of Islam is manifested in the form and meaning of its arts, it seems that some scholars have neglected its various aspects in explaining the Islamic architecture’s meaning. Traditionalists with a semantic approach consider Islamic architecture to be influenced by the essence of Islam and historians consider Islamic architecture to be a continuation of Byzantine and Sassanid Art. Assuming that,despite the methodological differences in Burckhardt and Grabar's approaches,they explain Islamic architecture according to the role of religious component. The question is what influence their views have on the definition of Islamic architecture? Findings show that Burckhardt believes the formation of architecture and its elements have been derived from the Islamic traditions while Grabar refers to Islam as a cultural component along with historical and social ones.

Phenomenology as one of the philosophical fields of the twentieth century, was used in the last decades of this century as an effective approach to better understanding in architectural theorizing. The present study examines the viewpoints of Juhani Pallasmaa and Steven Holl through their key concepts, with the aim of showing the commonalities and differences of their views and explaining more clearly the method of architectural phenomenology. The results of the study reveal that under the influence of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the multi-sensory and embodied perception of architecture is a key common concept to the theories of this two architects. The critique of retinal architecture, the focus on touch and tactility, memory and imagination, silence and slowness in Pallasmaa’s theories, are in line with the concepts of light, colors, parallax, and duration in Holl’s theories. On the other hand, although form is one of the themes of Steven Holl’s theories, Juhani Pallasmaa emphasizes the non-priority of form in architecture by proposing the concept of atmosphere. The present research has been done qualitatively by descriptive-analytical method.

According to Aristotle, poetics and art, were considered an imitation of reality but according to Bachelard, they were phenomenology of the imagination. Bachelard showed how houses are receptive to human characteristics and complexities, a house and its occupants usually match the architectural space, and residential space gives excellence to geometric space. House, in his opinion is a sheltered nest of dreams and imagination. Poetic imagination is always "text" and thus be interpreted and in reading the meaning of architecture and the city, both are studied as text. Thus poetics of urban space and architecture can be investigated from phenomenological, ethnographic and semiotics (Semio-logical) methods. Urban spaces in a semiotics approach, usually emphasize on the aspects of semantic systems. The city is filled with semantic significations which is encoded by both designers and citizens and then is decoded by the citizens. The city can be understood as a text by considering varying semiotics natures of the urban space. The question is, How to create a poetic urban space.
The aim of this research is to find techniques that can lead to poetical features in urban spaces. The urban semiology is a method to linguistic analysis meaning of urban space. The article analysed a case study of urban space that has this features by semiology approach. The case study is Bagh-e Boland (Chamran Park) in Shiraz city, designed by Mehrdad Iravanian (b. 1957). Bagh-e Boland is an urban space which allows its audience to interpret and explore the meanings. After an introduction to urban and architectural semiotics, a sociosemiotic analysis is carried out to uncover the meaning system of this built environment. In this case, the park is viewed as structured by poetical characteristics and as a text. The park has been investigated by syntagmatic and paradigmatic, synchronic analysis.
At the level of the design strategy, Iravanian has used three strategies to create a poetic space: intertextuality, defamiliarization, and metaphor. For intertextuality he linked his text with non-architectural texts such as sculptures or history of site. He has deviated from the standard language, has changed automatized meaning of the space and thereby has defamiliarized space. He has done this by increasing the scale forms, creating synchronicity spatial elements, and change in composition of the constructions. In addition, multiple meanings have been added to the space by using the architectural metaphor, amphiboly and metonymy. He suspended architectural elements and applied familiar construction and building materials in another way. He has provided metaphor by naming spaces, captured in the axis of the syntagmatic of spaces and usage of dual oppositions. Urban spaces are highlighted by exaggerating the textures used in floor, walls and furniture. It should be noted at the end that this spaces can be analyzed with other approaches, however looking at the language of this article is merely an urban space. Also intertextuality vision to text can disclose techniques of createing new meaning in space. Thus, an urban space, can help in motivation of thought, the audience, and the pleasure of discovery.

The text is focused on Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological thought that influenced some of the Western architects who established a new style called Post- Modern Architecture. Referring to poetic thought of the great German poets, Heidegger called poetry as the best way of thinking. Aspiration of Holderlin’s poem: “poetically man dwells,” led him to the “poetic dwelling” idea of human existence. Heidegger’s approach to art and architecture considered a special role for language and poetry in perception of environment. The impact of his phenomenological method on the two pioneers of Post-Modern architecture, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Christopher Alexander, made some new ways in architectural design. They submit “phenomenon of place” to solve the problem of “Identity” in architecture, which was rejected completely in Modern architecture under the name of International Style.
Here, the phenomenology method is used as the study approach on Heidegger’s philosophy and its influences on architectural theories of Post- Modern Architecture. The goal is to show that architectural identity, deeply depends on every building’s context and its raising up ground.

Victor Burgin is a famous British artist، renowned for his photographs and theories on art. Introducing his prominent theory through collected essays in a book titled The End of Art Theory; he was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1986، in addition to exhibiting his works in Institute of Contemporary Arts and Kettle''s Yard Gallery in Cambridge (1984). In this book، he exposes «the end of art theory» contrary to other theories with similar subject; the most renowned one belongs to Arthur Danto. Influenced by such thinkers as Karl Marx، Sigmund Freud، Jacques Derrida، Michel Foucault، Roland Barthes، and Jacques Lacan، Burgin’s writings mainly cover the fields of conceptual art، criticism، and art theory. His recent book، Parallel Texts is a collection of his essays، interviews and theoretical writings. According to Burgin، “art theory”، understood as those interdependent forms of art history، aesthetics and criticism which began during the Enlightenment and culminated in the recent period of “high modernism” is now at the end. Nonetheless، since every theoretical argument about art may be considered essentially a kind of theory، it seems paradoxical that Burgin as an artist simultaneously is theorizing about art and critic. No need to say that applying a kind of theory in deliberating about an artwork is inevitable. This article discusses the Burgin’s idea on conceptual art which is predicated upon Freudian psychology and is mostly focused on artist’s character as the fruit of natural structure of human psyche through a social process. He not only expresses the art theory in a continuum of art history، criticism and aesthetics but also defines it in the cycle of economy and politics. From his point of view، artwork is nothing but the product of this interwoven system. For him، a conceptual artwork is theoretically expressive. In other words، nowadays the art has transferred into theory and criticism; it follows that art theory has reached to an end and now it is declared through artworks. To conclude، the author would argue that in the world of art today، there is no need to separate professions as artists، critics and theorists anymore since all of them are compacted in one: an artist own self!

The term “losing oneself” is among those concepts, like “intoxication, restlessness and wishlessness”, which have been repeated so many times in Rumi’s poems. They are contrasted with “being oneself”, restfulness, sobriety and wishfulness. The difference between what Rumi understands of these words and their contemporary meaning is of importance here. Today, what we perceive of their meaning is something experienced, rational and related to modern psychology and psychoanalysis, all of which are alien to perceptual, lingual culture of Rumi’s time. We are to survey the secret meanings of these words, which are typically set together in his poems, through his two major masterpieces, Divan-e-Shams and Masnavi-e-Ma’navi. In this Study we will gradually appreciate the inter-connection between these words and other terms in Sufism like annihilation, persistence, predestination, freedom, rapture, attraction, ecstasy etc. Finally, through this examination we will understand the meaning of art which also differs from what is discerned as cotemporary fine art.

By contemplating upon Iranian art works (before and after Islam), one realizes that they have a close affinity and conformity, and at the same time mysterious relation with the religious beliefs of this land. Since art is considered to be a branch of knowledge and a result of essential comprehension of existence, art works were accordingly the product of knowledge attained by the mystic journey of the artist from truth to the material world and back. Hence, one has to refer to the idea of creation in order to gain knowledge about the concepts of art and beauty in Iranian pre Islamic and especially post Islamic beliefs. Based on the idea of creation, the universe stems from God and places the creatures in a hierarchical order. Each creature in this relational system has a particular relationship with the truth and beauty; hence, the art work and artist are in the same spectrum. The present article, after clarifying the connection between the truth and beauty and their relationship with art, artist, and art work in the Iranian-Islamic beliefs, tries to show that such an art results from an inner intuition, and therefore, its comprehension requires intuitive understanding which does not fulfill the sensational and rational mind. Finally the article makes it clear that due to a domination of quality over quantity in everything including letters and figures in post-Islamic Iran, calligraphy and architecture gradually gain priority over other forms of art.