Art Review: "Iran Modern" at Asia Society Museum

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Melik Kaylan

"Untitled" (1977) by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmain

NEW YORK---When a museum in the Western world focuses on a problematic foreign country, it usually wants to temper the antipathy between the two cultures by going beyond stereotypes, illustrating the other culture's "vibrancy," emphasizing its rich past, pointing up our shared history. All of which applies to "Iran Modern," an exhibition at the Asia Society of more than 100 modernist works by 26 influential Iranian artists from the 1950s to the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. On exiting, one realized what an emotional grip the show had exerted. Those objects, eloquent of a dawn interrupted, could finally tell their collective, poignant story to the wider world that had inspired them. [link]