Thematic and Content Study of Feminine Sculptures in Tehran City

Installation of sculpture in Iran’s urban spaces and especially in Tehran-as the capital of modern art of Iran- became prevalent from the Ghajar period and after the Islamic Revolution has continued with a growing pace. Urban sculptures have verity of thematic, content and formic styles and amongst them sculptures with the feminine subject contain special sensitivity from the structural and thematic points of view because of the special attention to women and the feminine figurative statues throughout the whole history of Iran and the world as well. As abundant motives and sculptures of goddesses and motherhood goddesses and feminine figurines have been discovered in different excavations all over the ancient sites around the world, revealing the importance and value of women through the whole history. In the contemporary society as well, the artists and their clients, each with their own attitude and techniques and structures have approached the woman subject and actually demonstrated part of social dominant culture and ideology in regard of woman or tried to induct concepts and identity according their opinion. According to the above mentioned content, consideration of feminine sculpting is not only a new and baseless and insubstantial subject, but also seeks precise attention and study. Hence, this research after an abstract explanation of value of woman through the Iran’s history, is observing and categorizing feminine sculptures installed in Tehran between 1976 to 1996 A.D. thematically an describes some of their formic and content specifications to answer this question that what qualities of the woman subject has come to attention of sculptors and their clients and which dimension of identity and existence of woman has been of the most emphasis and attention and also which ways are used by artists to design and demonstrate female figurines in accordance with Islamic Iranian culture and ideology. The results of the research reveals that investigating the feminine urban sculptures can almost to a great degree lead to understanding the dominant attitude in the society regarding position and role of woman in every society as of in design and construction of the urban feminine sculptures of Tehran, the theme of motherhood, such as the whole history of feminine sculpting, has obtained the most approved identical aspect of woman and other identities and aspects of women such as social aspects like portraits of distinguished and famous Iranian women has been considered less by artists and their clients. Also, formalistic investigation of these art works show that because of religious, legislative and cultural limitations in an Islamic country for exhibiting feminine figurines and also today’s attitude regarding female nudity, which unlike the old periods in history, is equivalent to pornography, sculptor artists have used tricks in design and construction to justify and legitimate installation of works in the public places. The research method used in this research is descriptive-analytical research method and library and field research are used in collecting information and images to categorize theme and content of art works, for describing their specifications and analyzing and describing them qualitatively.