Technologies of the image

de David J. Roxburgh, Mary McWilliams, Farshid Emami, Mira Xenia Schwerda

With a few notable exceptions, scholars have historically understudied and often underappreciated the art of Iran in the Qajar era (1779-1925). This catalogue presents a fresh take on the art of the period, setting aside the value judgments that shaped early responses to instead examine the effects and results of new technologies of representation across a variety of mediums. The book foregrounds the inherent relationship and movement among mediums and images, both traditional and new, while deflecting primary attention from royal patronage to more public and widely accessible forms of image-making. In bringing together four principal art forms--lacquer, painting and drawing on paper, lithography, and photography--the authors explore the separate and intertwined histories of these mediums, their contexts of production, and their means of dissemination across sectors of society ranging from the courtly elite to the citizenry at large. The book considers how the breadth of mediums and subject matters evidenced by these objects could be matched only by the diverse formats through which images were embodied and circulated in the world. Indeed, unlike their European contemporaries, Qajar artists and patrons were not concerned about systems of image duplication and translation--a key aspect this book takes up in its effort to approach Qajar art on its own terms, not as a lesser manifestation of Western ideals.