MAY 6 TO SEPTEMBER 9,2018,LOS ANGELES.
On a trip to Iran in 2014, Linda Komaroff, the curator of Islamic Art and the Head of the Art of the Middle East Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), distinctly remembers driving past Vali’asr Square in Tehran. There she came across a huge billboard of the then President Barack Obama standing next to Shimr – a sinister figure from early Shi'ite history who offered refuge to Imam Husain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and then murdered him along with his family and companions. The image, according to Komaroff, was a symbol of Iran’s mistrust of Obama. The experience inspired her to curate In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art – an exhibition that, in her words, shows ‘American audiences the human face of Iran’ and engages with its audience in a manner that forces them to question what they hear and see in the news.
This story is from the August - September 2018 edition of Arts Illustrated.
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This story is from the August - September 2018 edition of Arts Illustrated.
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