- Artist or Maker
- Abbas
Iran, 1944-2018 - Title
- Men Burning a Portrait of the Shah
- Date Made
- 1978, printed 2016
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Primary support: 12 × 16 in. (30.48 × 40.64 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2017.15
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
- Curatorial Notes
Early December 1978 witnessed the greatest public demonstrations in the history of Iran, in which an estimated ten percent of the population protested in the streets against the Shah, as captured in this photograph of a group of men burning a portrait of the monarch, who would step down in the next month. This compelling image was shot by the most-renowned photographer of the Iranian revolution, known by the single name Abbas.
- 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.
