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The Black Eye of Visual Arts
By Bahar Dashtban
events@tehranavenue.com
January 2007
به فارسی بخوانيم
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Have you heard about the Black Book of visual arts?

These days, when you go to the Artist's Forum, you will see many visitors checking out various exhibits at the city of Tehran's foremost semi-official art establishment. Film, photography, and painting exhibits may take place at the same time. On a Sunday afternoon last month, an event was organized to launch the Black Book at the Ezatollah Entezami Hall of the Forum. Many painters and graphic artists whose names had appeared in the book were present at the ceremony.

The book is a directory of visual artists of Iran, whose addresses, phone numbers, and electronic mails appear next to their names. Each of these artist paid around 175,000 Rls (around 150 Euros) for their information to be printed on two pages. The content is both in English and Persian.

The layout of the book is not consistent. It seems that several graphic designers have worked on it various pages. The fact that the background color of Persian and English pages is different can be mentioned as proof. Also, the name of established artists appears next to lesser known ones, which is one of the drawbacks of the book, for no other information is provided except those mentioned above.

There are also names of Art Institutions in the Black Book, without, however, giving any further details -- like the history of that institution, their instructors, whether they come under by the Ministry of Culture or are independent. A directory that claims to be a data bank must satisfy the curiosity of its readers, but the Black Book has only the most basic information and nothing else. Artists themselves financed the book; yet, its overall design is unprofessional and lack artistic merit. Some pages are more elaborate than others, though artists paid the same amount for every entry. At times, the background color clashes with that of the works chosen for display. On some pages, we can see a black ribbon drawn across the pages and on others a shadow of the work garnishes its background. This disagreement in the use of design elements has made the book appear disconnected. True the graphics sections are better laid out, but the only element that appears to be consistent is the page number. Needless to say that in a directory for visual arts one expects the visual aspect to be true to the subject matter.

At the ceremony, the Black Book was sold for the price of 60,000 Rls. In the next edition, the book will also include information on miniature artists and sculptors. For more information you can visit www.blackbook.ir



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