فصلنامه کیمیای هنر
پیاپی 34 (بهار 1399)

The study of the image of Merrīkh- Bahram in Islamic era implies both formal and thematic similarities with constellation of Barsavosh and Perseus. The three images illustrate one Man with a bare sword and severed head in his hand. This similarity raises this question that what is the relationship of these images? In other word, which image is the precedent to the later representations? This study utilized iconographic transformation approach to find this relationship. Thus, toward Medievalera cultural contingence occurred between Islamic and occidental paintings through the astrological texts. There was a continuous current of iconographic transformation which is traceable in this way: First, general transformation of mythical framework to an astrological one. Second specific transformation of motifs and themes of constellation of Barsavosh to the representation of Merrīkh- Bahram in Islamic era. Thus, emerges an interrelated network of transformations and identifications through texts and astrological motifs in paintings of Islamic era.

Contemporary Combination of images and texts together is one of the approaches postmodern artists use to transfer the artistic message. Barbara Kruger, feminist conceptual artist, has created most of her collages with a combination of visual/literary signs. Her works have conveyed strong social messages about culture, power, identity and gender to a large audience. The main purpose of current article is to analyze a number of her collages based on their visual rhetoric, to formulate her method of encoding the semiotic message. This research is a case study in the field of visual semiotics, which has been done with a descriptiveanalytical approach. This article makes it clear that Kruger has deliberately used rhetorical tropes (especially the four main tropes, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony) with the aim of encoding the artistic message. She uses this method to criticize issues such as blind idealism, patriarchy, feminine passivity, consumerism, commodification, and so on.

With regard to contemporary art, we find that the desire for the singularity and uniqueness of the artworks and the emphasis on its originality has prevailed in the space of critique and analysis of the works (or at least in its most important forms and approaches), which indicates a kind of inner perplexity towards understanding kinship of the works and preventing the development of the intertextual domain. But by referring to the intertextual process, it is possible to formulate a design that is both autonomous, and heterogeneous. Intertextuality owes its formation to the term that Kristeva used for any kind of connection between texts, which provided the ground and opportunity for receiving and transmitting the concepts of the mental worlds (author and audiences) and created a background for the continuous action, event and movement of the minds towards each other, and too from the artist’s professional subconscious to the objects (to represent the work as a text). In this research, we have tried to open a window to understanding and reading works by recognizing the intertextual process. Also, relying on Edward Saeed’s “traveling” theory, we have viewed the use of the intertextual process as a method for art criticism in the contemporary context of Iran from a critical perspective. This study is a qualitative research, which explains the view, that art as a text, is a space for the representation of the interrelationships and interactions between texts (past and even later texts). In this process, the connection between the texts (works) once again puts the former real work in a cover of mysteries and codes, and as the new work moves away from approaching and similarity (imitation) of other’s works, along with the negation of the conventional form of the objects and the previous works, it highlights a kind of kinship and connection between the texts (works).

The main objective of this essay is to re-examine the nature of sculpture and its importance among arts via retrieving and studying the relatively neglected importance of touch in the experience of this art. This objective is pursued according to eighteenth-century German philosopher, Johann Gottfried Herder, by focusing on his Sculpture: Some Observations on Shape and Form from Pygmalion’s Creative Dream, where he insists that sculpture is originally a tactile art, and therefore has a distinct position among arts. In the present essay, after giving a short account of the background of the dispute over comparison of arts in eighteenth century, and inquiring Herder’s stance in this dispute, it is explained that he, by proposing the concept of force to be the chief criterion for judging arts, and by claiming that our sense of touch corresponds to the obscure force of Being, concludes that sculpture is an art with fundamental potential to perceive this force.

Style and form of Wittgenstein’s writing are unique in contemporary philosophical literature. Thinkers take different stands about role of style and form of writing in Wittgenstein’s works. Some of them considered form and style to be aesthetic element which weakens argumentations of his text. In contrast, the others, believe that he was aware of diverse options of form and style and chosen his unique form and style due to limitations and potentialities of his philosophy and unique potentialities of the chosen form and style. Overall purpose of this study is to examine the relation of literary forms and philosophical content in Wittgenstein’s works. In this regard limitations and potentialities of Wittgenstein’s style and literary forms are studied. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and it is done by focusing on Wittgenstein’s works. Findings of this research show that the literary aspects of philosophical text are not accidental or ornamental for Wittgenstein. Results of this research also show that he was aware of limitation and potentialities which originate from literary form. In addition, studying literary aspect of Wittgenstein’s works in conjunction with their philosophical content reveals their fusion and interconnectivity to achieve his philosophical purposes.

This study uses the phenomenological approach of place to study the place in the contemporary era, which has been portrayed by New Topography artists. This style of photography, according to human function in nature in the contemporary world, was able to reveal facts about the destruction of the earth and proved its position as an applied photography. Given the need for this method of photography in contemporary art, this study seeks to respond to the characteristics of place in this style of photography using the theoretical framework of place phenomenology from the perspective of Norberg-Schulz. The assumption that this method of photography has a phenomenological and critical view of the environment has given new meanings to it. This research explores these meanings through analytical and descriptive methods. It seems that New Topography in photography is a reflection of the anonymity and sense of the place in the contemporary era, and artists have linked the art of photography to the history of the place by recording the place of contemporary man through exploring the destruction of the environment.