AZIZ ART

May 2017

Keith Haring

Behjat Sadr

National
Gallery,London

Tehran Museum of
Contemporary Art
1-Keith Allen Haring
10-Tehran Museum
of Contemporary
13- National Gallery
17-Behjat Sadr

Director: Aziz Anzabi

Editor : Nafiseh
Yaghoubi
Translator : Asra
Yaghoubi
Research: Zohreh
Nazari

http://www.aziz-anzabi.com
Keith Allen Haring

1
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 shirts and experimenting with
February 16, 1990) was an drugs.He studied commercial art
American artist and social activist from 1976 to 1978 at Pittsburgh's
whose work responded to the New Ivy School of Professional Art but
York City street culture of the lost interest in it.He made the
1980s by expressing concepts of decision to leave after having read
birth, death, sexuality, and war. Robert Henri's The Art Spirit (1923)
Haring's work was often heavily which inspired him to concentrate
political and his imagery on his own art.
has become a widely recognized Haring had a maintenance job at
visual language of the 20th the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
century. and was able to explore the art of
Early life and education Jean Dubuffet, Jackson Pollock, and
Keith Haring was born in Reading, Mark Tobey. His most critical
Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1958. He influences at this time were a 1977
was raised in Kutztown, retrospective of the work of Pierre
Pennsylvania, by his mother Joan Alechinsky and a lecture by the
Haring, and father Allen Haring, an sculptor Christo in 1978.
engineer and amateur cartoonist. Alechinsky's work, connected to
He had three younger sisters, Kay, the international Expressionist
Karen and Kristen.Haring became group CoBrA, gave Haring
interested in art at a very early confidence to create larger
age spending time with his father paintings of calligraphic images.
producing creative drawings.His Christo introduced him to the
early influences included Walt possibilities of involving the public
Disney cartoons, Dr. Seuss, with his art. Haring's first important
Charles Schulz, and the Looney one-man exhibition was in
Tunes characters in Pittsburgh at the Center for the
The Bugs Bunny Show.In Haring's Arts in 1978.
teenage years, he left his religious
background behind and hitchhiked
across the country, selling vintage t-
He moved to New York to study
painting at the School of Visual
Arts. He studied semiotics with
Bill Beckley as well as exploring
the possibilities of video and
performance art. Profoundly
influenced at this time by the
writings of William Burroughs, he
was inspired to experiment with
the cross-referencing and
interconnection of images.In his
junior/senior year, he was behind
on credits, because his professors
could not give him credit for the
very loose artwork he was doing
with themes of social activism
Early work
He first received public attention
with his public art in subways.
Starting in 1980, he organized
exhibitions at Club 57, which were
filmed by the photographer Tseng
Kwong Chi. Around this time, "The
Radiant Baby" became his symbol.
His bold lines, vivid colors, and
active figures carry strong
messages of life and unity. He
participated in the Times Square
Exhibition and drew animals and
human faces for the first time. That
same year, he photocopied and
pasted provocative collages made
from cut-up and recombined New
York Post headlines around the
city.In 1981, he sketched his first
chalk drawings on black paper and
painted plastic, metal, and found
objects.
By 1982, Haring had established
friendships with fellow emerging
artists Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf,
Madonna and Jean-Michel
Basquiat.He created more than 50
public works between 1982 and
1989 in dozens of cities around the
world.His "Crack is Wack" mural,
created in 1986, is visible from New
York's FDR Drive.He got to know
Andy Warhol, who was the theme
of several of Haring's pieces,
including "Andy Mouse". His
friendship with Warhol would
prove to be a decisive element in
his eventual success.
In December 2007, an area of the
American Textile Building in the
TriBeCa neighborhood of New York
City was discovered to contain a
painting of Haring's from 1979.
International breakthrough
In 1984, Haring visited Australia
and painted wall murals in
Melbourne (such as the 1984
'Detail-Mural at Collingwood
College, Victoria') and Sydney and
received a commission from the
National Gallery of Victoria and
the Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art to create a
mural which temporarily replaced
the water curtain at the National
Gallery.He also visited and painted
in Rio de Janeiro, the Muse d'Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris,
Minneapolis and Manhattan.He
became politically active,
designing a Free South Africa
poster in 1985, and in 1986,
painting a section of the Berlin
Wall. He was interested in working
with children and this inspired the
project Citykids Speak on Liberty,
which involved 1,000 children
collaborating on a project for the
centennial of the Statue of Liberty.
When asked about the
commercialism of his work, Haring
said: "I could earn more money if I
just painted a few things and jacked
up the price. My shop is an
extension of what I was doing in
the subway stations, breaking down
the barriers between high and low
art."By the arrival of Pop Shop, his
work began reflecting more socio-
political themes, such as anti-
Apartheid, AIDS awareness, and the
crack cocaine epidemic. He even
created several pop art pieces
influenced by other products:
Absolut Vodka, Lucky Strike
cigarettes, and Coca-Cola.In 1987
he had his own exhibitions in
Helsinki, Antwerp, and elsewhere.
He also designed the cover for the
benefit album A Very Special
Christmas, on which Madonna was
included. In 1988 he joined a select
group of artists whose work has
appeared on the label of Chateau
Mouton Rothschild wine.
Haring also created public murals in
the lobby and ambulatory care
department of Woodhull Medical
and Mental Health Center on
Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn.
.
A rare video of Haring at work artwork for the building at 208
shows his energetic style. Haring West 13th Street. Haring chose the
wrote: "I am becoming much more second-floor men's room for his
aware of movement. The mural Once Upon a Time.In June,
importance of movement is on the rear wall of the convent of
intensified when a painting the Church of Sant'Antonio .he
becomes a performance. The painted the last public work of his
performance (the act of painting) life, the mural "Tuttomondo"
becomes as important as the Fashion
resulting painting." Haring collaborated with Grace
When his friend Jean-Michel Jones, whom he had met through
Basquiat died of an overdose in Andy Warhol. In 1985, Haring and
New York in 1988, he paid homage Jones worked together on the two
to him with his work A Pile of live performances Jones at the
Crowns, for Jean-Michel Basquiat Paradise Garage, which Robert
Haring was openly gay and was a Farris Thompson has called a
strong advocate of safe "epicenter for black dance". Each
sex;however, in 1988, he was time, Haring covered Jones' body
diagnosed with AIDS. In 1989, he with graffiti. He also collaborated
established the Keith Haring with fashion designers Vivienne
Foundation to provide funding Westwood and Malcolm McLaren
and imagery to AIDS organizations on their A/W 1983/84 Witches
and children's programs, and to collection, with his artwork
expand the audience for his work covering the clothing which was
through exhibitions, publications most famously worn by a pink-
and the licensing of his images. wigged Madonna for a
Haring used his imagery during the performance of her song "Like a
last years of his life to speak about Virgin" on the British pop-music
his illness and to generate activism programme Top of the Pops and
and awareness about AIDS.In 1989, the American TV dance program
he was invited by the Lesbian and Solid Gold.Haring also collaborated
Gay Community Services Center to with David Spada, a jewelry
join a show of site-specific designer,
to design the sculptural
adornments for Jones.
Influences
Haring's work very clearly
demonstrates many important
political and personal influences.
Ideas about his sexual orientation
are apparent throughout his work
and his journals clearly confirm its
impact on his work. Heavy
symbolism speaking about the
AIDS epidemic is vivid in his later
pieces, such as Untitled (cat. no.
27), Silence=Death and his sketch
Weeping Woman. In some of his
worksincluding cat. no. 27the
symbolism is subtle,
but Haring also produced some
blatantly activist works.
Silence=Death is almost
universally agreed upon as a work
of HIV/AIDS activism.
Death
Haring died on February 16, 1990
of AIDS-related complications.
As a celebration of his life,
Madonna declared the first New
York date of her Blond Ambition
World Tour a benefit concert for
Haring's memory and donated all
proceeds from her ticket sales to
AIDS charities including AIDS
Project Los Angeles and amfAR; the
act was documented in her film
Truth or Dare. Additionally, Haring's
work was featured in several of Red
Hot Organization's efforts to raise
money for AIDS and AIDS
awareness, specifically its first two
albums, Red Hot + Blue and Red
Hot + Dance, the latter of which
used Haring's work on its cover.
Exhibitions
Haring contributed to the New York
New Wave display in 1981 and in
1982, and had his first exclusive
exhibition in the Tony Shafrazi
Gallery. That same year, he took
part in Documenta 7 in Kassel,
Germany, as well as Public Art
Fund's "Messages to the Public" in
which he created work for a
Spectacolor Board in Times Square.
He contributed work to the
Whitney Biennial in 1983, as well as
in the So Paulo Biennial. In 1985,
the CAPC in Bordeaux opened an
exhibition of his works, and took
part in the Paris Biennial.
Since his death Haring has been the
subject of several international
retrospectives. His art was the
subject of a 1997 retrospective at
the Whitney Museum in New York,
 curated by Elisabeth Sussman. In
1996, a retrospective at the
Museum of Contemporary Art
Australia was the first major
exhibition of his work in Australia.
In 2008 there was a retrospective
exhibition at the MAC in Lyon,
France. In February 2010, on
occasion of the 20th anniversary
of the artist's death,
Tony Shafrazi Gallery showed an
exhibition containing dozens of
works from every stage of Haring's
mature work.In March 2012, a
retrospective exhibit of Haring's
work, Keith Haring: 1978-1982,
opened at the Brooklyn Museum
in New York.In April 2013, Keith
Haring: The Political Line opened
at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la
Ville de Paris and Le Cent
Quatre In November 2014, then at
the De Young Museum in San
Francisco, California.
Collections
Haring's work is in major private
and public collections, including the
Museum of Modern Art and the
Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York; Los Angeles County
Museum of Art; the Art Institute of
Chicago; the Bass Museum, Miami;
Muse d'Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris; Ludwig Museum, Cologne;
and Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam.Haring did a wide
variety of public works, including
the infirmary at Children's Village in
Dobbs Ferry, New York,and the
second floor men's room in the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &
Transgender Community Center in
Manhattan, which was later
transformed into an office and is
known as the Keith Haring room.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary

10
Tehran Museum of Contemporary
Art, also known as TMoCA, is
among the largest art museums in
Iran. It has collections of more
than 3000 items that include 19th
and 20th century's world-class
European and American paintings,
prints, drawings and sculptures.
TMoCA also has one of the
greatest collections of Iranian
modern and contemporary art.
The museum was inaugurated by
Empress Farah Pahlavi in 1977,
just two years before the 1979
Revolution.TMoCA is considered to
have the most valuable collections
of modern Western masterpieces
outside Europe and North America
Background
The museum was designed by
Iranian architect Kamran Diba,
who employed elements from
traditional Persian architecture. It United States, a collection largely
was built adjacent to Laleh Park,
Tehran, and was inaugurated in
1977.The building itself can be
regarded as an example of
contemporary art, in a style of an approximately 2.5 billion worth of
underground New York
Guggenheim Museum.
Most of the museum area is
located underground with a circular
walkway that spirals downwards
with galleries branching
outwards.Western sculptures by
artists such as Ernst, Giacometti,
Magritte and Moore can be found
in the museum's gardens
After the Iranian Revolution in
1979, the Western art was stored
away in the museums vault until
1999 when the first post-revolution
exhibition was held of western art
showing artists such as Hockney,
Lichtenstein, Rauschenburg and
Andy Warhol.Now pieces of the
Western art collection are shown
for a few weeks every year but due
to conservative nature of the
Iranian establishment, most pieces
will never be shown.
It is considered to have the most
valuable collection of Western
modern art outside Europe and the
assembled by founding curators
David Galloway and Donna Stein
under the patronage of Farah
Pahlavi.It is said that there is
modern art held at the museum.
The museum hosts a revolving
programme of exhibitions and
occasionally organises exhibitions
by local artists.
A touring exhibitions was planned
for autumn 2016 in Berlin,
Germany, consisting of a three-
month tour of sixty artworks, half
Western and half Iranian.
The show was to run for three
months in Berlin, then travel to
the Maxxi Museum of 21st
Century Arts in Rome for display
from March through
August.However, the plan has
been indefinitely postponed
because the Iranian authorities
have failed to allow the
paintings to leave the country.
Also in 2017, a larger touring
exhibition is planned for the
Hirshhorn Museum in
Washington, D.C.It is hoped that
revenue from these tours will allow
the museum to upgrade the
infrastructure as well as purchase
new art, something it hasn't done
for over forty years.
Criticism
Purchasing expensive art work and
opening the contemporary art
museum in Tehran by the empress
was a controversial topic at the day
in 1977, as social and economic
inequalities were rising and the
government was a dictatorship not
tolerating the rising opponents. Le
Monde art critic Andr Fermigier
wrote an article called "A museum
for whom and for what?",
"questioning the link between an
Iranian child and a Picasso or a
Pollock
National Gallery

13
The National Gallery collection.The resulting collection is
is an art museum in Trafalgar small in size, compared with many
Square in the City of Westminster, European national galleries, but
in Central London. Founded in encyclopaedic in scope; most major
1824, it houses a collection of over developments in Western painting
2,300 paintings dating from the "from Giotto to Czanne"are
mid-13th century to 1900.The represented with important works.
Gallery is an exempt charity, and a It used to be claimed that this was
non-departmental public body of one of the few national galleries
the Department for Culture, Media that had all its works on permanent
and Sport.Its collection belongs to exhibition, but this is no longer the
the public of the United Kingdom case.
and entry to the main collection is The present building, the third to
free of charge. It is among the house the National Gallery, was
most visited art museums in the designed by William Wilkins from
world, after the Muse du Louvre, 1832 to 1838. Only the faade onto
the British Museum, and the Trafalgar Square remains essentially
Metropolitan Museum of Art. unchanged from this time, as the
Unlike comparable museums in building has been expanded
continental Europe, the National piecemeal throughout its history.
Gallery was not formed by Wilkins's building was often
nationalising an existing royal or criticised for the perceived
princely art collection. It came into weaknesses of its design and for its
being when the British government lack of space; the latter problem
bought 38 paintings from the heirs led to the establishment of the Tate
of John Julius Angerstein, an Gallery for British art in 1897. The
insurance broker and patron of the Sainsbury Wing, an extension to
arts, in 1824. After that initial the west by Robert Venturi and
purchase the Gallery was shaped Denise Scott Brown, is a notable
mainly by its early directors, example of Postmodernist
notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, architecture in Britain. The current
and by private donations, which Director of the National Gallery is
comprise two-thirds of the Gabriele Finaldi.
World War II
Shortly before the outbreak of
World War II the paintings were
evacuated to various locations in
Wales, including Penrhyn Castle
and the university colleges of
Bangor and Aberystwyth. In 1940,
as the Battle of France raged, a
more secure home was sought,
and there were discussions about
moving the paintings to Canada.
This idea was firmly rejected by
Winston Churchill, who wrote in a
telegram to the director Kenneth
Clark, bury them in caves or in
cellars, but not a picture shall
leave these islands.Instead a slate
quarry at Manod, near Blaenau
Ffestiniog in North Wales, was
requisitioned for the Gallery's use.
In the seclusion afforded by the
paintings' new location,
the Keeper (and future director)
Martin Davies began to compile
scholarly catalogues on the
collection, helped by the fact that
the Gallery's library was also
stored in the quarry. The move to
Manod confirmed the importance
of storing paintings at a constant
temperature and humidity,
something the Gallery's
conservators had long suspected
but had hitherto been unable to
prove.This eventually resulted in
the first air-conditioned gallery
opening in 1949.
For the course of the war Myra
Hess, and other musicians, such as
Moura Lympany, gave daily lunch-
time recitals in the empty building,
to raise public morale at a time
when every concert hall in London
was closed.A number of art
exhibitions were held at the Gallery
as a complement to the recitals.
The first of these was British
Painting since Whistler in 1940,
organised by Lillian Browse,who
also mounted the major joint
retrospective Exhibition of
Paintings by Sir William Nicholson
and Jack B. Yeats held from 1
January 15 March 1942, which
was seen by 10,518
visitors.Exhibitions of work by war
artists, including Paul Nash, Henry
Moore and Stanley Spencer, were
also held; the War Artists' Advisory
Committee had been set up by
Clark in order "to keep artists at
work on any pretext".In 1941 a
request from an artist to see
Rembrandt's Portrait of Margaretha
de Geer (a new acquisition)
resulted in the
"Picture of the Month" scheme, in which a single painting was removed
from Manod and exhibited to the general public in the National Gallery
each month. The art critic Herbert Read, writing that year, called the
National Gallery "a defiant outpost of culture right in the middle of a
bombed and shattered metropolis".The paintings returned to Trafalgar
Square in 1945.
Behjat Sadr

17
Behjat Sadr also known as Behjat
Sadr Mahallti 29 May 1924 - 11 (a well known Iranian musician and
August 2009 was an Iranian composer) and had her only
modern art painter whose works daughter, Kakuti (Mitra) Awarded
have been exhibited in major cities the Royal Grand Prize at Tehran
across the world, such as New York, Biennial 1962.
Paris, and Rome.Sadr is known for
her paintings that utilizing In 1979, after the Islamic
a palette knife on canvases to Revolution in Iran started Sadr and
create impressionistic paintings her daughter moved to Paris.
featuring visual rhythm,
movement and geometric shapes. Sadr was diagnosed with breast
cancer in the late 1990s, but
Biography continued to paint. She died at age
Behjat Sadr Mahallti was born to 85 of a heart attack on 11 August
Mohammad Sadr-e Mahallti and 2009 in Corsica.
Qamar Amini Sadr in Arak, Iran on
29 May 1924 Sadr began her Legacy
studies at the University of Tehran Sadr was the first female
faculty of fine arts. After her contemporary painter to be
graduation, she won a scholarship considered on the same level as her
to the Accademia di Belle Arti in male colleagues in Iran.
Rome at the Naples Academy of In 2006, Sadr was the subject of a
Fine Arts. documentary film called Behjat
Sadr: Time Suspended, directed by
Sadr's first major exhibition was at Mitra Farahani.Which includes
the twenty-eighth Venice Biennial footage of the artist at work as well
in 1956. In 1957, Sadr returned to as extensive interviews.
the University of Tehran as a
member of faculty and taught there
for almost 20 years.There she met
and married her second husband
Morteza Hannaneh
Group Exhibitions
1956 Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy

1957 Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy

1957 Galleria Il Pincio, Rome, Italy

1962 Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy

1962 The 3rd Tehran Painting Biennial, Tehran, Iran

1962 So Paulo Biennial, So Paulo, Brazil

1987 "Iranian Contemporary Art: Four Women", Foxley Leach Gallery,

Washington DC
http://www.aziz-anzabi.com