Echoing of the High Human concepts in Art
The art of the sacred defense or the art of war that emerged with the war itself was one of the best manifestations of artist man in defending his country. The visual arts related to the sacred defense, generally and historically, can be divided to three categories. Though the duty of art is not the mirror-like representation of the realities, generally this is expected from the arts and so the artist’s role gets importance.
Witter: Shahnaz Ersali; Graphist
Abstract
The art of the sacred defense or the art of war that emerged with the war itself was one of the best manifestations of artist man in defending his country. The visual arts related to the sacred defense, generally and historically, can be divided to three categories. Though the duty of art is not the mirror-like representation of the realities, generally this is expected from the arts and so the artist’s role gets importance.
Forward
Shahnaz Ersali was born in Tehran in 1966. In 1990, she took the painting as her professional adventure in Al-Zahra University for women and then graduated from there with a BA in Graphic Arts. She has many research papers and has been the designing manager for some film productions such as Paper Doll and Paradise Convicts. She is also active in designing graphic catalogues.
Introduction
It goes without saying that every event in the political and social scene will have an affect on the lives of men and women in some ways. Review of the history of wars of the world will detect that. One would come to this conclusion that, in dire socio-political situations such as wars and revolutions, the scientists and the artists are among whom affected the most by these events and transfer these effects to society at large, because in the time of sudden changes, the atmosphere is transient and the new audience emerges. So, by this fact, the theme of the artist will necessarily be of transient nature. The imposed war to our country affected the artistic, social and cultural milieu in the same way. The undeclared war was imposed on us, so nation felt obliged to defend its values, those that are being reached at by the revolution.
The manifestation of art in war
The art of the sacred defense or the art of war that emerged with the war itself was one of the best manifestations of artist man in defending his country. This species of the art was of a different nature and has had special features which the art of the previous stage was lacking. Prior to the revolution, the visual arts were affected by the innovations imported from the west. The works of the period carried with themselves the structure and the thinking frames of the western art. This, of course, was due to the show-off of western stars in special occasions and Iranian artists ‘travels abroad. This led Iranian visual arts to the less Iranian and more foreign nature. The dominance of western thinking was in such scale that only few of the artists cared about Iranian traditional arts and had not had any recourse to Iranian framework of thought and worldviews in creating their works. With the revolution and the birth of a new ideology, different with the previous one, the artist was affected by the invisible changes in social attitudes and values and explored new territories, if needed. Undoubtedly, the young cohort who was newly graduating from art faculties and who was not very active in the field of the arts was among the first whose works reflected the changes occurred in society by the revolution. At that time, untapped by any influence from inside, this young cohort was examining the art. By outbreak of the revolution, they found themselves in between a revolutionary wave and redirected their thinking with the direction the revolution was running in. after the revolution, they hailed the second wave, the war, and they again moved even further to the fronts in order to shape a newer form for the art.
The visual art in wars in the west
Comparative studying of the art of the world wars and the sacred defense makes it clear that there is aesthetic difference between them. The art, in the Second World War, was used like other elements to military purposes. They used all of these genres to warm up the men to fight in fronts; arts such as music, sculpture, painting, graphic arts, catalogues and wall paintings. The duty of the art was to magnify the upsides of the home and the downsides of the enemy in the eyes of the nation. The art of the war asked women to send their husbands and sons to war fronts. This was done by using the beauty of women and the attractive features of women which were in accord with the modern codes of value and behavior. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the states and politician in power profited the most from the arts and exploited any possibility of art stars in the way to their purposes. So, from the 2nd world war, the visual arts have assumed the role of a new propaganda machine. In this way, arts were taken for granted as a new tool for the intelligence and propagandist managers of many countries. By the arts, their ideology would be dominant over people thinking and would make their thought in the direction these managers were going to lead. The knowledge of the time has been depicted by these arts which were used for propagandist purposes, and have become reserved for the generations to come.
The characteristics of sacred defense art
In order to evaluate the sacred defense art from this view point, we must say that this art is not as powerful as the western art. Our artist entered this field believes and his values, while the western artist has been assigned some roles by the government and created spiritless works and values were the least influential in these works. Indeed most artists of the sacred defense were voluntarily and without any assigning of the role at the war fronts and so their creations were an art that they felt it by their senses i.e., when a story-teller narrates the valor and the sacrifices and the emotional and spiritual situation in fronts, his actually giving an eyewitness account of the events. These differences, perhaps, as a result of structural and fundamental differences from other world wars and hence, the sacred defense art exists in the dramatic arts, literature and visual arts and which is behind these fields. This is an ideological and sacred thinking. Kamarei writes in his article, the pathology of research on the sacred defense, ‘one can come to know the art of the war from three viewpoints. One is the subjective point of view. The second is philosophical one which asks epistemological questions. History, culture and thought are closely related to war. The third view point is the scientist’s.”?
A division
The visual arts related to the sacred defense, generally and historically, can be divided to three categories. The first category is a period of the young in the war fronts. The works of this period approaches the war realistically, i.e., the war as a real and tangible phenomenon, is in the artist’s daily life. s/he, influenced by this fact, has a brainstorm and at the same time, is aware of the war itself. Most of their works have been presented through catalogues, paintings and wall paintings. These works were more created during the war years, but works of the ending years of the war are better in narrative structure.
The second period; the period of peace and tranquility
In this period, the purpose is to commemorate the war for organizations engaged in war, such as Sepah (the Revolutionary Guard Corpse), Jihad construction (Crusade for Construction), Bonyad e Shahid (the Martyrs’ Foundation) and associated arts centers of the Organization for Islamic Propagation and many others of employed many of the artists and hence, few of the artists have worked by themselves. But artists active in this period have abandoned emotional slogans, but yet lacking an innovative vision that is necessary to make a change. So, the works of this period have approximated to a special trend in arts. The second period itself can be divided into 2 eight-year period. The first is a period in which the artist have been working mainly for the state-run institutes such as war propagation , the organization for preserving the sacred defense relics and Bonyad e Shahid( the Martyrs’ Foundation).in this period the real character of the war commanders is the dominant theme of paintings and sculptures . The second period belongs to the innovation of the artists themselves who, using the years of experience, have attended such a maturity of style to have their own way of expressing themselves and their art.
The spirituality in arts
The Iranians have always displayed the motives believes and ideology in cultural arenas. When we take a glance at 1980s art, we clearly can detect that there is a revolutionary thought and an ideology hidden in between the artistic works of the period. The imposed war, centered in the mentality of the people as the sacred defense, has been fused with such concepts as sacrifice, martyrdom, boldness and valor and the art media have recorded these concepts in a concrete form through lens of the camera, painting colors or sculptor’s fingers. Indeed the artist of the sacred defense, using this thinking frame, has created works that have their root in the personal believes. However, this value-based themes and motives were of changing levels of significance in different media. For example, in photography these believes and values have been more tangible and hence, among the arts, the pictures of the sacred defense are more affective and yet can be influential after those years. Of course, although the purpose of the visual artist has been to immortalize the sacred defense values, works by photographers are more real regarding the displaying of the moments of insight and passion, because pictures record events that are replete with sacred concepts such as martyrdom and sacrifice. Most of the paintings and catalogues of the sacred defense, the creativity of the artist himself is actively engaged in the process of creation and presents the history of war with an artistic work.
The great duty
Now it is time to see that to what extent we have known the value and features of the sacred defense and really how the visual art can be successful without any help from cultural branches. While we are in third decade after the war, this time definitely, is a good opportunity to evaluate the artistic atmosphere dominant in the period and investigate the quality of the creation of an artistic piece. To this end, even it seems necessary to examine the working record of Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and other institutes of art in supporting artists in their work of the sacred defense themes so that it is known to us that what has happened to the organic art that is limited to special occasions. Really the art of sacred defense has been changed to a customized art and the zest for art has not been delivered to young generations. In a moving report in Sooreh Magazine Amad Davoodabadi writes: “now the foreigners are strictly at work on the sacred defense. One day, at the next room, I was talking to a German Professor, Dr. Joshua and Eric Tobble. In talking to the Finns, I informed that they have been working on the issue. A Dutch girl was working on the Khorramshar wall paintings. Dr. Joshua told to Kamarei that: ‘any book on the war, had, in the first place, as its readers university teachers, students and then the public. I searched the bookstores in Tehran University, but have not found any book on the war or perhaps you have forgotten the war? Has it been of least value?”? Authorities, when interviewed, are talking about their achievements on the war fronts, even in TV and cinema these bluffs have been quite common. Iraqi TV programs Scenes of the War, ruthlessly displayed the corpses of our soldiers, which were slaughtered. But the Iranian side is not very keen in showing scenes of slaughter. I told in an event that when I killed the first Iraqi soldier, I prayed for his soul. Every Iraqi soldier whom we killed, they prayed for their soul. This is the different moral approaches between our war and the others. But Iraqi soldiers killed our soldiers buried them in mass and then covered them with concrete. We, on the other hand, when coming across an Iraqi soldier, prayed for his soul. This is the morality of our front. I once was hospitalized in Ilam, an Iraqi trooper, who had been killer of many of our soldiers the night before, was there because he was a war prisoner. An American, to whom I was speaking, was very shocked at our treatment of war prisoners.”? With these scenes, it seems that the duty of art of the sacred defense is to transfer such moralities of fronts and also its realities, which is great importance. Though the duty of art is not the mirror-like representation of the realities, generally this is expected from the arts and so the artist’s role gets importance. Perhaps this is the reason behind the fact that this field needs state support financially, and if any shortcoming, this art will remain poor in quality and quantity of its achievements.
Abstract
The art of the sacred defense or the art of war that emerged with the war itself was one of the best manifestations of artist man in defending his country. The visual arts related to the sacred defense, generally and historically, can be divided to three categories. Though the duty of art is not the mirror-like representation of the realities, generally this is expected from the arts and so the artist’s role gets importance.
Forward
Shahnaz Ersali was born in Tehran in 1966. In 1990, she took the painting as her professional adventure in Al-Zahra University for women and then graduated from there with a BA in Graphic Arts. She has many research papers and has been the designing manager for some film productions such as Paper Doll and Paradise Convicts. She is also active in designing graphic catalogues.
Introduction
It goes without saying that every event in the political and social scene will have an affect on the lives of men and women in some ways. Review of the history of wars of the world will detect that. One would come to this conclusion that, in dire socio-political situations such as wars and revolutions, the scientists and the artists are among whom affected the most by these events and transfer these effects to society at large, because in the time of sudden changes, the atmosphere is transient and the new audience emerges. So, by this fact, the theme of the artist will necessarily be of transient nature. The imposed war to our country affected the artistic, social and cultural milieu in the same way. The undeclared war was imposed on us, so nation felt obliged to defend its values, those that are being reached at by the revolution.
The manifestation of art in war
The art of the sacred defense or the art of war that emerged with the war itself was one of the best manifestations of artist man in defending his country. This species of the art was of a different nature and has had special features which the art of the previous stage was lacking. Prior to the revolution, the visual arts were affected by the innovations imported from the west. The works of the period carried with themselves the structure and the thinking frames of the western art. This, of course, was due to the show-off of western stars in special occasions and Iranian artists ‘travels abroad. This led Iranian visual arts to the less Iranian and more foreign nature. The dominance of western thinking was in such scale that only few of the artists cared about Iranian traditional arts and had not had any recourse to Iranian framework of thought and worldviews in creating their works. With the revolution and the birth of a new ideology, different with the previous one, the artist was affected by the invisible changes in social attitudes and values and explored new territories, if needed. Undoubtedly, the young cohort who was newly graduating from art faculties and who was not very active in the field of the arts was among the first whose works reflected the changes occurred in society by the revolution. At that time, untapped by any influence from inside, this young cohort was examining the art. By outbreak of the revolution, they found themselves in between a revolutionary wave and redirected their thinking with the direction the revolution was running in. after the revolution, they hailed the second wave, the war, and they again moved even further to the fronts in order to shape a newer form for the art.
The visual art in wars in the west
Comparative studying of the art of the world wars and the sacred defense makes it clear that there is aesthetic difference between them. The art, in the Second World War, was used like other elements to military purposes. They used all of these genres to warm up the men to fight in fronts; arts such as music, sculpture, painting, graphic arts, catalogues and wall paintings. The duty of the art was to magnify the upsides of the home and the downsides of the enemy in the eyes of the nation. The art of the war asked women to send their husbands and sons to war fronts. This was done by using the beauty of women and the attractive features of women which were in accord with the modern codes of value and behavior. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the states and politician in power profited the most from the arts and exploited any possibility of art stars in the way to their purposes. So, from the 2nd world war, the visual arts have assumed the role of a new propaganda machine. In this way, arts were taken for granted as a new tool for the intelligence and propagandist managers of many countries. By the arts, their ideology would be dominant over people thinking and would make their thought in the direction these managers were going to lead. The knowledge of the time has been depicted by these arts which were used for propagandist purposes, and have become reserved for the generations to come.
The characteristics of sacred defense art
In order to evaluate the sacred defense art from this view point, we must say that this art is not as powerful as the western art. Our artist entered this field believes and his values, while the western artist has been assigned some roles by the government and created spiritless works and values were the least influential in these works. Indeed most artists of the sacred defense were voluntarily and without any assigning of the role at the war fronts and so their creations were an art that they felt it by their senses i.e., when a story-teller narrates the valor and the sacrifices and the emotional and spiritual situation in fronts, his actually giving an eyewitness account of the events. These differences, perhaps, as a result of structural and fundamental differences from other world wars and hence, the sacred defense art exists in the dramatic arts, literature and visual arts and which is behind these fields. This is an ideological and sacred thinking. Kamarei writes in his article, the pathology of research on the sacred defense, ‘one can come to know the art of the war from three viewpoints. One is the subjective point of view. The second is philosophical one which asks epistemological questions. History, culture and thought are closely related to war. The third view point is the scientist’s.”?
A division
The visual arts related to the sacred defense, generally and historically, can be divided to three categories. The first category is a period of the young in the war fronts. The works of this period approaches the war realistically, i.e., the war as a real and tangible phenomenon, is in the artist’s daily life. s/he, influenced by this fact, has a brainstorm and at the same time, is aware of the war itself. Most of their works have been presented through catalogues, paintings and wall paintings. These works were more created during the war years, but works of the ending years of the war are better in narrative structure.
The second period; the period of peace and tranquility
In this period, the purpose is to commemorate the war for organizations engaged in war, such as Sepah (the Revolutionary Guard Corpse), Jihad construction (Crusade for Construction), Bonyad e Shahid (the Martyrs’ Foundation) and associated arts centers of the Organization for Islamic Propagation and many others of employed many of the artists and hence, few of the artists have worked by themselves. But artists active in this period have abandoned emotional slogans, but yet lacking an innovative vision that is necessary to make a change. So, the works of this period have approximated to a special trend in arts. The second period itself can be divided into 2 eight-year period. The first is a period in which the artist have been working mainly for the state-run institutes such as war propagation , the organization for preserving the sacred defense relics and Bonyad e Shahid( the Martyrs’ Foundation).in this period the real character of the war commanders is the dominant theme of paintings and sculptures . The second period belongs to the innovation of the artists themselves who, using the years of experience, have attended such a maturity of style to have their own way of expressing themselves and their art.
The spirituality in arts
The Iranians have always displayed the motives believes and ideology in cultural arenas. When we take a glance at 1980s art, we clearly can detect that there is a revolutionary thought and an ideology hidden in between the artistic works of the period. The imposed war, centered in the mentality of the people as the sacred defense, has been fused with such concepts as sacrifice, martyrdom, boldness and valor and the art media have recorded these concepts in a concrete form through lens of the camera, painting colors or sculptor’s fingers. Indeed the artist of the sacred defense, using this thinking frame, has created works that have their root in the personal believes. However, this value-based themes and motives were of changing levels of significance in different media. For example, in photography these believes and values have been more tangible and hence, among the arts, the pictures of the sacred defense are more affective and yet can be influential after those years. Of course, although the purpose of the visual artist has been to immortalize the sacred defense values, works by photographers are more real regarding the displaying of the moments of insight and passion, because pictures record events that are replete with sacred concepts such as martyrdom and sacrifice. Most of the paintings and catalogues of the sacred defense, the creativity of the artist himself is actively engaged in the process of creation and presents the history of war with an artistic work.
The great duty
Now it is time to see that to what extent we have known the value and features of the sacred defense and really how the visual art can be successful without any help from cultural branches. While we are in third decade after the war, this time definitely, is a good opportunity to evaluate the artistic atmosphere dominant in the period and investigate the quality of the creation of an artistic piece. To this end, even it seems necessary to examine the working record of Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and other institutes of art in supporting artists in their work of the sacred defense themes so that it is known to us that what has happened to the organic art that is limited to special occasions. Really the art of sacred defense has been changed to a customized art and the zest for art has not been delivered to young generations. In a moving report in Sooreh Magazine Amad Davoodabadi writes: “now the foreigners are strictly at work on the sacred defense. One day, at the next room, I was talking to a German Professor, Dr. Joshua and Eric Tobble. In talking to the Finns, I informed that they have been working on the issue. A Dutch girl was working on the Khorramshar wall paintings. Dr. Joshua told to Kamarei that: ‘any book on the war, had, in the first place, as its readers university teachers, students and then the public. I searched the bookstores in Tehran University, but have not found any book on the war or perhaps you have forgotten the war? Has it been of least value?”? Authorities, when interviewed, are talking about their achievements on the war fronts, even in TV and cinema these bluffs have been quite common. Iraqi TV programs Scenes of the War, ruthlessly displayed the corpses of our soldiers, which were slaughtered. But the Iranian side is not very keen in showing scenes of slaughter. I told in an event that when I killed the first Iraqi soldier, I prayed for his soul. Every Iraqi soldier whom we killed, they prayed for their soul. This is the different moral approaches between our war and the others. But Iraqi soldiers killed our soldiers buried them in mass and then covered them with concrete. We, on the other hand, when coming across an Iraqi soldier, prayed for his soul. This is the morality of our front. I once was hospitalized in Ilam, an Iraqi trooper, who had been killer of many of our soldiers the night before, was there because he was a war prisoner. An American, to whom I was speaking, was very shocked at our treatment of war prisoners.”? With these scenes, it seems that the duty of art of the sacred defense is to transfer such moralities of fronts and also its realities, which is great importance. Though the duty of art is not the mirror-like representation of the realities, generally this is expected from the arts and so the artist’s role gets importance. Perhaps this is the reason behind the fact that this field needs state support financially, and if any shortcoming, this art will remain poor in quality and quantity of its achievements.
