Tehran exhibition explores Europe’s postwar artistic legacy
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art opened ‘Nine Artworks by Post-War European Painters,’ a new exhibition drawn from its renowned collection that explores how some of Europe’s leading artists grappled with the legacy of World War II through painting and sculpture.
The exhibition opened on June 8 and runs through June 17 in the museum’s main hall.
The fourth part of the museum’s ongoing ‘Art & War’ series, the show brings together works by Francis Bacon, Pierre Soulages, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Max Beckmann, Giorgio Morandi, Günther Uecker and Hans Hartung, offering a condensed portrait of a continent seeking renewal after devastation, IRNA reported.
Rather than depicting battlefields alone, the selected works trace the psychological and cultural aftershocks of war. “What matters in my work is the identity hidden behind what is called reality,” Beckmann once said, reflecting a broader post-war search for meaning beneath the surface of everyday life.
Morandi’s quiet arrangements of bottles evoke a world emptied of conflict, while Bacon’s wounded and distorted figures stand as enduring images of human fragility. “We are carcasses in potential,” Bacon famously remarked, a statement that has become inseparable from interpretations of his post-war oeuvre.
The exhibition also highlights Soulages’ celebrated exploration of black, or Outrenoir (“Beyond Black”), where darkness becomes a vehicle for light rather than a symbol of despair. Nearby, Hartung’s scar-like abstract gestures bear the imprint of a life marked by exile and wartime injury.