TEHRAN – Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is hosting the third program in the “Art and War” series, exploring the theme of war as seen by Mexican artists.

The exhibition features eleven works by Mexican printmakers, based on works from the museum’s treasured collection, IRNA reported.

The show includes two valuable works by renowned Mexican artists, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, dating back to the 1920s, depicting the struggles of the people of Mexico.

Alongside these two works, a collection of nine contemporary Mexican works is also on display, focusing on scenes of wars of independence and the social formation of Mexican identity.

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896 – 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials, and technique. Along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he was one of the most famous of the "Mexican muralists".

José Clemente Orozco (1883 – 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others. Orozco was the most complex of the Mexican muralists, fond of the theme of human suffering, but less realistic and more fascinated by machines than Rivera. Mostly influenced by Symbolism, he was also a genre painter and lithographer.

The “Art & War” exhibition, featuring works from the treasured collection of the TMoCA, offers a unique opportunity to revisit and analyze how contemporary wars influence the formation of different art movements.

The exhibition has been planned as an artistic reaction to the 40-day American-Zionist assault on Iran (from February 28 to April 8), which martyred about 3,500 people, including the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, several officials and military commanders, as well as numerous civilians, including women and children.

During the 40-day war (also known as the Ramadan War), besides some military targets, the US and Israel launched organized attacks against civilian infrastructure, including residential homes, hospitals, refineries, power plants, schools, universities, art and cultural spaces, bookstores, museums, and ancient sites in several cities, causing total or partial damage and injuring innocent people.

The TMoCA plans to gradually make more works available to audiences, so that with each visit, they can gain deeper insight into the impact of art when confronting historical and contemporary crises.

Established in 1977, the museum has more than 4,000 items that include 19th and 20th-century world-class Iranian, European, and American paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures. Being the biggest collection of Western art in the eastern world, it includes works from almost all artistic periods and movements.

The museum was designed by Iranian architect Kamran Diba, who employed elements from traditional Persian architecture. The building itself can be regarded as an example of contemporary art, in the style of an underground Guggenheim Museum.

Most of the museum area is located underground with a circular walkway that spirals downwards with galleries branching outwards. Western sculptures by artists such as Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, and Moore can be found in the museum's gardens.

The first part of the “Art & War” exhibition was dedicated to landmark works by famous artists of the Pop Art movement, such as Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein, and the second part of the exhibition featured works by Spanish modernist painters, including Pablo Picasso, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Motherwell, and Juan Gris.

The third part of the “Art & War” exhibition will be open to visitors through May 30 at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, located next to Laleh Park on N. Kargar Street.

SS/SAB