Abdullah Al-Haqim 
After more than three decades of staying out of view in a warehouse, more than 25 artistic masterpieces of Paplo Picasso were shown to the public in Iran. The new exhibition was opened at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, to be the first time that these famous artworks are shown in the country.
The exhibition includes prominent works of various stages of Picasso’s life, including “the cry of war” and “echo of sadness”. It also includes one of his most prominent paintings, the “painter and model” (1927), which is the largest painting of his post -cubic eras. In addition, 12 painting in the style of water drilling is exposed from the “LaTurotachia” group (1957), which reflects Picasso’s deep passion for bullfighting culture in Spain.
This exhibition is part of a huge modern artistic collection included in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which contains about 4,000 works, and most of it has been out of view since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In the context, Hassan Noveast, Director of Public Relations at the Museum, explained in a statement toNBC News“The exhibition focuses on displaying part of the permanent collection of the museum, indicating that Picasso is a noun that is rich in the global definition.
For her part, Nadra Redaei, Vice -Minister of Iranian Culture for Art Affairs, confirmed during the opening ceremony that Picasso was a revolutionary figure in the art world, saying that “artists like Picasso, with their unique methods, have revolutionized global art.” She also pointed to the great role of contemporary art in shaping Iran’s cultural and artistic identity.
The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art was established in 1977 at the initiative of Farah Bahlawi, the wife of the former Shah of Iran, and was one of the first museums in the region that collected modern and contemporary works from Europe and America. According to Professor Susan Babai, Professor of Islamic and Iranian Arts at the Cortold Institute of Arts in London, this artistic group played a pivotal role in drawing attention to the vibrant artistic scene in Tehran at the time.
But after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, a number of artworks in the museum were hidden due to what the ruling authorities at the time considered inappropriate topics, such as nudity and other sensitive topics. Nevertheless, the museum gradually began to restore its cultural role. In 2012, he hosted the first pop art gallery, which included works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Liechtenstein and David Hawkni.
In recent years, the museum has presented several prominent exhibitions, including the “face to face” exhibition, which attracted widespread attention and led to the extension of its presentation twice due to the great demand. This exhibition presented rare Western works that have been hidden for years, and the value of the museum group is estimated at between 3 and 4 billion dollars, according to the architect and former director of the Museum Camran Deeba.
For his part, Hamid Kashmirrskin, the artistic historian at Soas University in London, indicated that “the exhibition reflects the dynamics of contemporary Iranian culture, which rarely receives attention in Western narratives.”
