- Title
- Shah and the British Ambassador
- Date Made
- 2014
- Medium
- Inkjet print
- Dimensions
- 59 1/16 × 39 3/8 × 1 1/4 in. (150.02 × 100.01 × 3.18 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2016.138.5
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial Notes
One of the many challenges of Nasir al-Din’s reign was the escalating interference of England and Russia as each sought control over traditional Persian territories. A pair of prints (see M.2016.138.6) ironically emphasizes the shah’s impotence against such foreign domination, personified by the ambassadors. Here, the British ambassador uses a leash and whip to control the shah, feminized and sexualized by black lace stockings.
The sexualized depiction of the shah references a letter the artist found supposedly written by Nasir al-Din Shah in a moment of desperation in his dealings with England in which he notes he did not want to succumb to their greater power by behaving like: “a loose woman who gives in as soon as she is asked to remove her underwear.”
- Selected 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.
