Persian Art in Vienna, 1900-1945

This research project, entitled Persian art in Vienna, 1900-1945: the shifting of objects, images and ideas in Central Europe, intends to conduct an in-depth study of the mechanisms of collecting, trading, displaying and interpreting of what was then known as Persian (i.e. modern-day Iranian and West Central Asian) art in Vienna in the period between 1900 and 1945. With the focus on the role of Central Europe, the proposed project considers factors and protagonists in the reshaping of the images of Persian art in the early twentieth century, ranging from scholars, curators, collectors to public events, such as exhibitions and congresses. It investigates the intricate history of exchanging and sharing Persian objects and their itineraries of multi-way movement at both physical and intellectual levels, as well as the shift of Persian art markets, collections and scholarship from Vienna to the rest of the world. Furthermore, the current research project dwells upon a historiographical question as to how the dissemination process of information, such as reproductions and publications, was interrelated with the creation of connoisseurial and scholarly canons of what we came to categorise as Persian art of medieval and early modern periods, before it was merged into an umbrella term Islamic art, together with other sub-categories of Middle Eastern art after the seventh century, namely the arts of the Arabs and the Turks. The project addresses the following research questions: how objects from the Persian world were acquired, collected and interpreted according to the requirements of a particular time and society during the early twentieth century; what was the role of scholars, curators, collectors and art dealers in the formation of Persian art collections in major public and private collections located in Vienna, versus the major cultural capitals of Western Europe at that time, such as London and Paris; more importantly, how such collections were established not only within the contexts of the Habsburgs but also from trans-regional perspectives; what sort of objects were shared by which collections at the same time; which collections remained unaffected under their initial ownership or vanishedeither destroyed or found their way to a new destination; how or through whom the objects reached different destinations; how the international network of Persian art dealing was established and how this affected the core of Persian art scholarship. Locating its research basis in Vienna, the project will be the first attempt to contextualise the historiographical background of Persian art history in early twentieth-century Central Europe, an approach that remains unexplored in comparison with the scholarly foundation of non-western art history in Western Europe during the nineteenth century.

The project (Persian Art in Vienna) has steadily developed public engagement activities, in order to stimulate a cultural dialogue between Austria and the rest of the world. By teaming up with the Austrian Society for Textile Art research (TKF)(https://www.tkf-textilkunst.at/), one of the long-standing societies for textile and art enthusiasts, this project offered several opportunities to get the Austrian public involved through the lens of textile arts from the Persian cultural lands. The project leader, Dr. Kadoi, has successfully reached out new public audiences in Vienna, across the country and further afield by delivering a series of public lectures on various aspects of Persian textile and carpets, with the focus on local historical connections. Apart from the period of the COVID-pandemic closure (spring 2020-spring 2022, intermittently), each event was taking place in conjunction with other events (exhibitions, cultural tours, conferences, art fairs, etc) at local museums, art galleries or community art centers. TKF members and invited guests (approximately ca. 50-60 people) participated in each event that was also widely publicised online. Engagement activities were held three times during the duration of the project (spring 2019-autumn 2022): x 'Carpets on the move: modern trajectories of Persian woven treasures', Klosterkirche Kulturzentrum, Traunstein, 13 September 2019 (in association with the International Conference on Oriental Carpets [ICOC] and the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research [TKF]). x 'Discovering woven treasures: the invention and mystification of textiles from medieval Persia', Weltmuseum, Vienna, 22 February 2020 (in association with the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research [TKF]). x 'Fashioning Eurasia: the art of blue textiles', Künstlerhaus, Vienna, 9 September 2022 (in association with the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research [TKF]). Overall, these activities not only have made a beneficial impact on the Austrian society, but also have served to enhance the public outreach of the project.