Technologies of the image - Art in 19th century Iran. David J. Roxburgh, Mary McWilliams
In English. Hardcover, 192 pages, 28.8 x 23.7 x 2.4 cm. Yale University Press, October 2017.
The diverse, rich, and beautiful art of Iran Qajar (1779-1925) has long been underestimated and undervalued. This insightful publication re-evaluates Qajar art, particularly its four main mediums--lacquerware, paper painting and drawing, lithography, and photography--and their interconnected development. The Qajar era witnessed the emergence of new technologies and the incorporation of mass-produced items imported from Europe, Russia, and India. These cultural changes brought about a transformation in the Iranian art world, as artists produced printed and photographic images and also used these widely disseminated mediums as sources for their paintings on paper and lacquer. Technologies of the Image illustrates dozens of Qajar works, including sketches and drawings from the extraordinary album of drawings by Harvard artists, photographs by Ali Khan Vali, and stunning Persian lacquers from private collections. The book considers Qajar art as the product of a rapidly changing art world, in which images circulated among the media, highlighting objects that span contexts of production and patronage, from the real to the sub-real.
