Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (Persian: موزه هنرهای معاصر تهران), also known as TMoCA, is among the largest art museums in Tehran and Iran. It has collections of more than 3,000 items that include 19th and 20th-century's world-class European and American paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures. TMoCA also has a major collection of Iranian modern and contemporary art. The museum was inaugurated by Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi (Persian: فرح پهلوی) in 1977, just two years before the 1979 Revolution. TMoCA is considered to have the most valuable collections of modern Western masterpieces outside Europe and North America. Background According to Shahbanu Farah, the idea for the museum originated in a conversation at a gallery opening in the 1970s, when the artist Iran Darroudi mentioned her desire for a permanent place to exhibit works. The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art was supposed to be a place to show contemporary and modern Iranian artists alongside other international artists doing similar work. The museum was designed by Iranian architect and cousin of the empress, Kamran Diba, who employed elements from traditional Persian architecture of Yazd, Kashan, and other desert towns. Diba collaborated with architect Nader Ardalan during the design phase. It was built adjacent to Farah Park, renamed Laleh Park after the Islamic revolution, and was inaugurated in 1977. The building itself can be regarded as an example of contemporary art, in a style of an underground New York Guggenheim Museum. Most of the museum area is located underground with a circular walkway that spirals downwards with galleries branching outwards. Western sculptures by artists such as Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, and Moore can be found in the museum's gardens. The art selection was done under the office of Shahbanu Farah with a budget from the National Iranian Oil Company. The Shahbanu personally met many of the artists whose work was part of the museum collection, including the Western artists Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Henry Moore, Paul Jenkins, Arnaldo Pomodoro. Some people involved in the process of selecting art were the Americans, Donna Stein and David Galloway, and Kamran Diba, the architect and director of the museum, and Karimpasha Bahadori, who was the Chief of Staff of the cabinet. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Western art was stored away in the museum's vault until 1999 when the first post-revolution exhibition was held of western art showing artists such as David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Now pieces of the Western art collection are shown for a few weeks every year but due to the current conservative nature of the Iranian establishment, most pieces are never shown. It is considered to have the most valuable collection of Western modern art outside Europe and the United States, a collection largely assembled by founding curators David Galloway and Donna Stein under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi. It is said that there is approximately £2.5 billion worth of modern art held at the museum. The museum hosts a revolving program of exhibitions and occasionally organizes exhibitions by local artists. Collection curator Donna Stein later wrote a memoir, The Empress and I: How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected and Rediscovered Modern Art (2021), because she felt she was not properly credited for her role in curating this collection. Politics In 1977, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi purchased expensive Western artwork in order to open the contemporary art museum. This was a controversial act due to rising social and economic inequalities. The authoritarian government was intolerant of the growing opposition, which, only a few years later, would overthrow the monarchy in the Iranian revolution. A few art pieces did not survive the revolution including a public statue by Bahman Mohasses deemed un-Islamic and a 1977 Warhol painting, a portrait of the Shahbanu. Le Monde art critic André Fermigier wrote an article in 1977 called "A museum for whom and for what?", "questioning the link between an Iranian child and a Picasso or a Pollock". Farah Pahlavi responded to this criticism, noting that Iranians can understand modern art, not all Iranians were living in remote villages, and this issue with modern art was not unlike one that had existed in France. A touring exhibition was planned for autumn 2016 in Berlin, (Germany), consisting of a three-month tour of sixty artworks, half Western and half Iranian. The show was to run for three months in Berlin, then travel to the Maxxi Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome for display from March through August. However, the plan had to be postponed because the Iranian authorities had failed to allow the paintings to leave the country, also noting that, since the revolution, these paintings had not been shown in Iran. Finally, on 27 December 2016, a press release by Hermann Parzinger, the President of the organising committee, Berlin's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (in German: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin), cancelled the exhibition altogether. In 2017, the TMoCA unexpectedly staged a show in Tehran which included the very works which were selected to travel to Europe: Berlin-Rome Travellers, Selected Works of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. It can be considered kind of an acte de résistance on the part of the museum director at the time, since, with the advent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected president of Iran in 2005, a harsh conservative wind has, to this day, blown away the relative openness and pragmatism of the Rafsanjani and Khatami eras. Permanent collection This is a list of artists featured in the permanent collection at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Ansel Easton Adams: Canyon de Chelly Yaacov Agam: more than 10 oil and acrylic works Aydin Aghdashloo: Identity: in praise of Sandro Botticelli and other works Arman: Vagues après vagues John Baldessari: several conceptual photographic works Francis Bacon: a triptych, Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendants, 1968 ,, and Reclining man with sculpture, 1961 Giacomo Balla: Futurist drawing, Figure in Movement, 1913 Bernd and Hilla Becher: several photographic works Max Beckmann: Max Bill: Rhythmus im Raum (Multiplied by Space), red granite, 1947-1948 Georges Braque: painting Guitare, Fruits et Pichet, 1927, and bronze sculpture Hymen, 1939-1957 Alexander Calder: "The Orange Fish” mobile (aka “Ogunquit"), 1946, and Prickly Pear stabile, 1964 Mary Cassatt: drypoint and aquatint print, Peasant Mother and Child, 1895 Marc Chagall: Family With Cock Eduardo Chillida: Estela a Pablo Neruda (Homage to Pablo Neruda), 1974 Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Scale model of "Wrapped Reichstag", 1977 Salvador Dali: Edgar Degas: a version of his Dancers Willem de Kooning: Light in August, 1946 Note: Woman III, 1953, was de-accessioned and traded in 1994 for a rare 16th century Persian manuscript of the Tahmasbi Shahnameh, the Book of Kings, containing precious miniatures Robert Delaunay: lithograph from the Windows series, related to the painting La Fenêtre, 1912 (Musée de Grenoble) André Derain: Fauvist painting L'Âge d'or (Golden Age), 1905 Jim Dine: Jean Dubuffet: unknown title Marcel Duchamp: study (1911–13) for The Large Glass, 1915 André Dunoyer de Segonzac: Don Eddy: Bumper Section XIII, 1970 James Ensor: Mariage des Masques, 1926 Max Ernst: Capricorn, 1944 and Histoire Naturelle, 1923 Seyed Mohammad Ehsai: Calligraphy Painting Toranj? Parvaneh Etemadi: Vases, 1977 Dan Flavin: Untitled, 1967 William Henry Fox Talbot: photogenic drawing of a Single Fern, photographic negative print on salted paper, 1836-37 Mansour Ghandriz: Untitled, 1963 Paul Gauguin: Nature Morte à l’estampe japonaise (Still Life with Head-Shaped Vase and Japanese Woodcut), 1889 Alberto Giacometti: 1 painting, Portrait of Isaku Yanaihara, 1960 and 4 bronze sculptures, a.o. Standing Woman I, 1960, La Cage, 1965-66 and Walking Man I, 1956-60 Gilbert & George: Mental 6, 1976 Adolph Gottlieb: Black & Black Marcos Grigorian: unknown title George Grosz: The Unexpected Guest Javad Hamidi: Composition Richard Hamilton: Duane Hanson: Boxers aka In Honor of Muhammad Ali, 1970 Noriyuki Haraguchi: Matter and Mind aka Oil Pool David Hockney: Untitled Edward Hopper: Mehdi Hosseini: Untitled, 1976 John Hoyland: Jasper Johns: Pinion and Passage 2, 1966 Douglas James Johnson: The Shield of Achilles, 1975 Donald Judd: Stacks Wassily Kandinsky: Tensions Claires, 1937 Abbas Kiarostami: Franz Kline: Untitled, 1955 František Kupka: Farideh Lashai: Composition, 1997 Fernand Léger: Paysage (Landscape), 1913 Sol LeWitt: Open Cube Roy Lichtenstein: The Melody Haunts My Reverie, 1965, Roto Broil, 1961, Brattata, 1962, and others Morris Louis: No.34, 1961 René Magritte: Le Thérapeute aka The Healer (bronze sculpture), 1967 , Marino Marini: Horse and Rider (bronze sculpture) Leyly Matine-Daftary: Portrait of Nasrin, 1966 Joan Miró: unknown title Amedeo Modigliani: Untitled Ahmad Mohammadpour: Calligraphy Painting Bahman Mohasses: Tryst, 1964 and Untitled, 1975 Claude Monet: Vue de Giverny, 1886 Henry Moore: bronze sculptures Two–Pieces Reclining Figure, 1969-70 Three–Pieces Reclining Figure, 1968-69 and Working Model for Oval with Points, 1968-69 Giorgio Morandi: Noreen Motamed: Edvard Munch: Self-portrait, 1895 Jules Pascin: Peter Phillips: Pablo Picasso: Baboon and Young (bronze sculpture), Secrets (Confidences) or Inspiration (tapestry) and several paintings a.o. : The Painter and His Model, 1927 and Fenêtre ouverte sur la rue de Penthièvre, 1920 Faramarz Pilaram: Calligraphic Painting, 1975 Camille Pissarro: Houses at Knokke, 1894 Michelangelo Pistoletto: Green Curtain, 1967 Jackson Pollock: Mural on Indian Red Ground, 1950 Arnaldo Pomodoro: Rotante primo sezionale n. 3 (bronze sculpture), 1967-1975 Maurice Prendergast: Robert Rauschenberg: Narcissus Convoy, 1977 Man Ray: The Last Object, 1932-42 (Dada sculpture) Ad Reinhardt: Abstract Painting, 1962 Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Gabrielle with Open Blouse, 1907 Shokouh Riazi: Portrait of Dariush Eskandani Jean-Paul Riopelle: Baubess 11 Diego Rivera: Henry Peach Robinson: Landing the Catch Mark Rothko: No. 2 (Yellow Center), 1954 , Sienna, Orange & Black on Dark Brown, 1962, and another painting similar to the latter James Rosenquist: Georges Rouault: Sterling Ruby: Edward Ruscha: Fruits Ali Akbar Sadeghi: Myth & Math, Piano War, 2011 and Unwritten Behjat Sadr: Untitled, 1967 Abolghasem Saidi: Untitled, 1972 Sohrab Sepehri: Trees Jesus Rafael Soto: Canada Robert Smithson: Rock Salt & Mirror Pierre Soulages: unknown title Frank Stella: Sinjerli Variations No 1-5, 1977 Parviz Tanavoli: bronze sculptures Sanctified 1, 1976, Poet and the Lion Bone, 1969, another sculpture & Shirin and Farhad Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Girl with Lovelock (in French : Fille à l'Accroche-Cœur) William Turnbull: Cy Twombly: Untitled, 1963 Suzanne Valadon: Untitled (pastel), 1909 Louis Valtat: Kees van Dongen: Trinidad Fernandez, 1907 Vincent van Gogh: lithograph of Worn Out : At Eternity's Gate, 1882, formerly in the Nelson Rockefeller Collection Victor Vasarely: Mohsen Vaziri-Moghaddam: Scratches on the Earth, 1963 Édouard Vuillard: Entrance to the city, 1903 Andy Warhol: Suicide (Purple Jumping Man), 1965, The American Indian, 1976, versions of Campbell's Soup Cans, 1968, and several portraits of Mick Jagger, 1975, Marilyn Monroe, 1967, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1966 and 10 versions of Mao Zedong, 1972. Tom Wesselmann: Great American Nude James McNeill Whistler: Fritz Winter: Manouchehr Yektai: Still Life, 1971-72 Hossein Zenderoudi: Untitled, 1972 Jalil Ziapour: Autumn Leaf or Zeynap Khatoun, 1962 Temporary Exhibitions List of exhibitions from 1977 to 2011 (in French) A Manifestation of World Contemporary Art, 7 June 7 — 11 November 2010. Pop Art & Op Art exhibition, 2012. Rainbow, a retrospective exhibition of Otto Piene in collaboration with the Nationalgalerie Berlin, 24 Feb 2015 — 25 May 2015. Farideh Lashai - Towards the Ineffable, 21 Nov 2015 — 26 Feb 2016, co-curated by Iran’s Faryar Javaherian and Italy’s Germano Celant. Wim Delvoye at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 07 Mar 2016 — 13 May 2016. The Sea Suspended: Arab Modernism from the Barjeel Collection, 08 Nov 2016 — 23 Dec 2016, Barjeel Art Foundation. Berlin-Rome Travellers, Selected Works of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 07 Mar 2017 — 16 June 2017. Tony Cragg: Roots & Stones, 24 Oct 2017 — 12 Jan 2018. Portrait, Still Life, Landscape, 21 Feb — 20 April 2018, curated by Dutch architect Mattijs Visser. Above the Fields, 9 March — 5 May 2024, curated by Masiha Rabiei Adham Zargham: Memories of Nature, 15 May — 30 June 2024 Eye to Eye, 6 October 2024 — January 2025, curated by Jamal Arabzadeh Picasso in Tehran, 12 March — 20 April 2025 See also International rankings of Iran Safir Office Machines Museum Modern and contemporary art in Iran Further reading Maryam Ekhtiar, Marika Sardar : Modern and Contemporary Art in Iran | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (metmuseum.org), October 2004 Kambiz Navai : An Architectural Analysis: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran, Archnet-IJAR (International Journal of Architectural Research), Volume 4 - Issue 1 - March 2010, pp. 194–207. Günther Uecker. Huldigung an Hafez. Homage to Hafez - Bemühungen von/With the efforts of Günther Uecker und/and Ehsan Aghaei, exhibition catalogue, Kunstverlag Till Breckner & Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Düsseldorf, 186 p., ISBN 978-3-9394-522-87, 2016 (in German, English, Persian) Mehdi Hasani : A Review of Foreign Works in TMOCA, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 2017. Viola Raikhel-Bolot, Miranda Darling : Iran Modern: The Empress of Art, published by Assouline, 200 p., ISBN 9781614286349, 2018. Donna Stein: The Empress and I: How an Ancient Empire Collected, Rejected and Rediscovered Modern Art, Skira, 280 p., ISBN 9788857244341, 2021. Hamid Dabashi : What is our art doing in their capitals? | Arts and Culture | Al Jazeera, 2021. Documentary film ARD Iran-Correspondent Natalie Amiri: Der verborgene Schatz. Die legendäre Kunstsammlung des Iran (The Hidden Treasure. The Legendary Art Collection of Iran) | Arte, 2017, 55 min. (in German) Interviews Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi: the Empress of Iran talks about the legendary collection of modern and contemporary art assembled in the 1970s - Judith Benhamou-Huet Reports, 2019 How Her Imperial Majesty Queen Farah Pahlavi Built an Art Empire - Vogue Arabia, 2020 Donna Stein - Podcasts & Video on The Empress and I (donnasteiniran.com) References External links Kamran Diba, Artist and Architect Iran, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art photos from the Berlin-Rome Travellers exhibition, April, 2017 | Flickr Album by Sun.Ergos Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art - Contemporary Architecture of Iran (caoi.ir) TMoCA | Darz, database on Iranian art Photography Exhibition Gives Berliners a Rare Look at Tehran’s Legendary Modern Art Collection (artnet.com) Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi: the Empress of Iran talks about the legendary collection of modern and contemporary art assembled in the 1970s - Judith Benhamou-Huet Reports (judithbenhamouhuet.com) External links Media related to Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art at Wikimedia Commons Official website