International Gathering of Muslim Painters

The Second Biennial International Painting of the Islamic World was inaugurated on Sunday, 8th December, 2002 in Tehran, Iran. For this biennial which was held with the main objective of interdicting and identifying modern painting of the world of Islam; a total of 1681 pieces of art works by 318 artists from 36 countries were submitted to the biennial secretariat. And at the end the selection board of the biennial chose 250 works of 122 artists from 27 countries. The First Biennial International Painting Exhibition had been held two years ago in Tehran. The subjects presented were religious, Qur’anic and Traditional and Modern painting from the Muslim painter’s points of view.
It is interesting to know that in the second biennial 146 art works from 80 Iranian painters were accepted out of many works submitted. An effort was made to choose the works that have more serious achievements in the field of contemporary painting and of course were of higher qualities.
“Beauty is the axis and the orbit of art, and a true artist is one who, no matter where he is, must disprove of and negate all ugliness, and present the beauty to the world.” said Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (President of the Islamic Republic of Iran), in the inauguration ceremony of the 2nd International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings of the Islamic World. He also added “all the Muslim artists, thinkers and politicians must strive to show the beauty of Islam”. Islam is the religion of kindness, beauty and mercy and the artists must show this beauty in their works.
Regarding the relation between art and civilization, he named artists as the creators of civilizations and those who renew and activate it through human history. He also said: “The art of a nation is under the influence of its civilization but doesn’t mean that art is totally captivated by the civilization, on the contrary, sometimes art and its reflections challenge civilization.”
In the meeting held before the inauguration of the festival, Habibollah Sadeqi, editor of the second biennial, concerning the works presented in the international section said: “More than 70% of the art works belong to the countries of the Islamic world ranging from Europe to Japan.”
Iran as a country with a magnificent historical role in introducing rich and ancient cultures may also have a significant role in presenting Islamic culture.
“Setting up such biennials and exhibitions can be a way of confronting the procedure of globalization that tries to put the culture of different nations in one place and in a unilateral world. In this situation the artists of the Islamic world with their cultural backgrounds can keep the world’s culture uniquely different. Now Muslim artists are searching for their cultural identity and have made amazing strides towards this end. We hope that with such biennials a kind of dialogue and exchange of ideas will take place among these artists,” Sadeqi also added.
Along with the biennial, a conference will be held which can be perceived as the theoretic part of the 2nd international biennial painting of the Islamic world. According to Dr. Khazaee its editor, the main aim of the conference is to make a close and face-to-face connection between painters and art researchers of the Islamic world. He also added: “As the paintings of the world of Islam have a wealth of potential, if the Muslims come together, with their backgrounds and ancient civilizations they can establish their real place.”
It cannot be denied that in the past few decades some movements have taken place in the paintings of the world of Islam with the aim of determining the identity of this art in order to confront the waves of westernization among the artists of this country. It is for sure that the activities such as this biennial can have an undeniable effect on unifying and coordinating these movements, which keep the paintings of the Islamic world unique, original, fresh and somehow internationally acceptable.
Courtesy: Touba Newsletter.