A Re-Reading of the Picture of Modern Art as Drawn up in the 1950s and 60s Press

The attempt to explain the meaning of art and beauty is the first step in introducing the art which emerged from modernity and non-indigenous paradigms. The academic milieu saw the fine arts as an imported concept resulted from the artist’s creativity, sensibility and individuality. The press tried to explain the rules dominating an art isolated from the society and its needs. In the 1950s and 60s these attempts found a more integrated form, exploited to improve the public perception of modernist art. The explanation of the characteristics of the modern art in the press in those years would improve the public understanding of one of the manifestations of modernism on one hand, and was an attempt to find a market for Iranian modernist paintings and promote favourable views amongst affluent Tehran citizens, familiarising them with goals of the Iranian modern art. The question is, which voices and trends were better represented in the press in those years, and whether a picture can be drawn up of contradictory influential concepts of the cultural milieu of the time, through illustrated press texts.