Murder of Amir Kabir

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Murder of Amir Kabir

Series: Underground
Edition: 1/5
2014
Photographs
Inkjet print
70 7/8 × 53 1/8 × 1 1/4 in. (180.02 × 134.94 × 3.18 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman through the 2016 Collectors Committee (M.2016.138.8)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Amir Kabir, or Mirza Taqi Khan Farahani, was Nasir al-Din Shah’s first prime minister....
Amir Kabir, or Mirza Taqi Khan Farahani, was Nasir al-Din Shah’s first prime minister. A reformist, mentor, and father figure, Amir Kabir played an active role in creating Nasir al-Din Shah’s modern Qajar regime. He was later deposed, in part due to the influence of the shah’s mother, and then executed in a bathhouse by royal decree. Filizadeh’s depiction of Amir Kabir’s execution notably recalls the infamous Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, a portrait of the French Revolutionary figure Jean-Paul Marat stabbed to death in his bathtub while composing a final letter. Amir Kabir is depicted in a similar manner as a revolutionary martyr found dead in a bathtub with his pale, languid body falling over the edge as he bleeds out.
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