HOUSTON, TX.- In July, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians—The Mohammed Afkhami Collection, profiling the distinguished collection of financier and philanthropist Mohammed Afkhami. Featuring 23 Iranian-born artists across three generations, the exhibition reveals the complex histories and identities of Iranians today. These works range across a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and video. Curated by Fereshteh Daftari for the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, with the partnership of Mohammed Afkhami and the Afkhami Foundation, the exhibition is on view in Houston from July 1 to September 24, 2017.

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet highlights the unique evolution of contemporary art both in Iran and by Iranian artists who have left their native country. Independent curator and scholar Fereshteh Daftari selected 27 signature works to express four interwoven themes, charting a nuanced and complex overview that transcends standard chronologies.

The mystic current, which is perhaps the most familiar aspect of contemporary Iranian art, is introduced by two calligraphic works: Parviz Tanavoli’s sculpture Blue Heech (Blue Nothingness) (2005) and Mohammad Ehsai’s painting Mohabbat (Kindness) (2006), the title of which can be also be translated as an expression of love and generosity. Opposing currents of satire and rebellion are encapsulated by Shirin Aliabadi’s Miss Hybrid 3 (2008), a staged photograph that explores the global self-consciousness which characterizes the generation of Iranians who came of age in the Internet era and the relative liberalism of the Khatami presidency (1997–2005). Ali Banisadr’s epic We Haven’t Landed on Earth Yet (2012) expresses the terror and chaos of war through painterly abstraction, while Farhad Moshiri’s Flying Carpet (2007) displays silhouettes of fighter planes cut into traditional carpets, reflecting on the ever-more-urgent threat of global conflict. Ultimately, an elegiac mood is established through the poetic vistas photographed by Shirin Neshat and Abbas Kiarostami. Additional featured artists include such established figures as Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian and Shirazeh Houshiary, as well as more emerging talents, including Morteza Ahmadvand, Nazgol Ansarinia, and Alireza Dayani, among others.

“We are delighted by this collaboration with the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, and the Afkhami Foundation, two outstanding resources committed to promoting a more profound understanding of the art of our times,” stated MFAH director Gary Tinterow. “We are deeply grateful to Mohammed Afkhami for his generous loans, making it possible to shed light on the rich heritage, as well as the trials and triumphs, of the Iranian people during a period of social and political unrest.”

“Both the city of Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, are exceptional in their global outlook,” commented Mohammed Afkhami. “It is a great honor to bring Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet to this truly multicultural institution for the inaugural U.S. presentation. I am proud to introduce the work of contemporary artists from Iran into fresh dialogues with new audiences and the Museum’s wide-ranging collections.”

“Mohammed Afkhami’s collection offers an entry point into the contemporary art of a nation known to foreigners, since the ancient Greeks, as Persia, but whose indigenous name has always been Iran,” added Fereshteh Daftari, exhibition curator. “Out of the more than 300 works held by the Afkhami Foundation, Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet focuses on works which exemplify the main discursive ingredients of Iranian contemporary art—gender, politics, religion, and spirituality—and the dialogue they can stimulate across pluralist positions, diverse aesthetics, and a multiplicity of mediums.”

The Houston presentation of this exhibition has been coordinated by Alison de Lima Greene, the MFAH Isabel Brown Wilson Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art.

Iranian-born collector and financier Mohammed Afkhami is internationally celebrated for his contributions to the preservation and promotion of modern art from the Middle East. His distinguished collection of more than 300 objects focuses primarily on Iranian-born artists, featuring works created from 1961 to the present day. In addition, Afkhami is a founding member of the British Museum’s Middle East and North Africa Art Acquisition Committee, a member of the Guggenheim Museum’s Middle East and North Africa Art Acquisition Committee, and serves on the advisory board of Art Dubai.