Pahlavan II, Ready to Order

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Pahlavan II, Ready to Order

2008
Sculpture; assemblages
Mixed media box
76 × 52 × 10 in. (193 × 132.08 × 25.4 cm)
Gift of Lynda and Stewart Resnick through the 2017 Collectors Committee (M.2017.68)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

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This mixed-media box provides a contemporary take on Iranian history, culture, and religion. Its focal point is an image of a pahlavan (or champion) based on a vintage photograph. The pahlavan is clothed as a member of the zurkhana and enclosed, along with actual objects associated with the zurkhana, in a shrine-like structure decorated with internal lights, perhaps to emulate the Iranian tradition of erecting temporary memorials to commemorate the dead.
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Bibliography

  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.