2 - Cultural Politics in Pahlavi Iran

Summary

Structurally, Chapter 2 has three parts, it discusses the evolution of the term gharbzadegi (westoxification), which denotes the most substantial critique of Iran’s modernization, cultural politics as means of soft power in Pahlavi Iran, and previously untranslated art criticisms of Jalal al-e Ahmad. This chapter delves deeper into the museum’s history and foundation under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah. For a deeper insight into Pahlavi cultural policy, this section will analyze the architectural design of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, showing that the instrumentalization of art and architecture helped to communicate the new ideology established by the Pahlavis. To alter the perception of modernist art in Iran as a mere illustration of Pahlavi modernization, the last part of the chapter will introduce Jalal al-e Ahmad’s art criticism. As important source material, his texts reveal that modernism was less a kind of formalist experimentation with Western modernity and more a new artistic language that provided Iranian artists with new means of expression to address social and political themes of their time.