‘Art & War’ exhibition
Tehran museum show traces Iran’s epic tradition from ‘Shahnameh’ to Ashura
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art opened the fifth exhibition in its ongoing Art & War series, showcasing 12 rare coffeehouse paintings that trace Iran’s centuries-old tradition of epic storytelling from Ferdowsi’s ‘Shahnameh’ to the tragedy of Ashura.
Titled ‘Iranian Epic Narratives: From the Shahnameh to Ashura,’ the exhibition, which opened on June 22 and runs through July 3, draws exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection. It explores how artists transformed heroic and religious narratives into a visual language that has shaped Iran’s collective cultural memory across generations, IRNA reported.
The exhibition features works by leading masters of Iran’s coffeehouse painting tradition, including Mohammad Modabber, Abbas Bolukifar, Ahmad Khalili, Hossein Hamedani, Ali Akbar Larni, Mohammad Farahani, Hassan Esmaeilzadeh, Reza Hamidi and Ganji.
Museum expert Salar Rafieian described the paintings as far more than folk or religious art, calling them "a popular medium for recreating collective memory" that extends a visual tradition from Mani’s legendary Arzhang, through Persian miniature painting and Shia iconography, to the oral performances of Naqqali (Iranian dramatic storytelling).
"These artists were not passive guardians of the past," Rafieian wrote. "They continually reinterpreted a centuries-old narrative tradition to address the social, ethical and political realities of their own time." He added that the paintings place the heroes of the Shahnameh alongside the martyrs of Karbala, forging "a shared moral memory" centered on justice, truth and resistance against oppression.
University of Science and Culture professor Mohammad Mohammadi said battle has remained one of the defining themes of Iranian art throughout history. Yet, unlike many Western depictions of war, Iranian visual traditions illuminate conflict through divine light rather than darkness.
"The world is illuminated by divine grace," Mohammadi wrote. "That is why these scenes largely avoid the graphic violence one might expect."
The exhibition marks the latest chapter in Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art's Art & War program, launched earlier this year to revisit the museum's collection through the lens of conflict and its enduring impact on artistic expression.
Previous installments have featured works by Pop artists, Spanish modernists including Pablo Picasso, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Motherwell and Juan Gris, Mexican printmakers, and postwar European painters.