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Iranian art boom - 2006-2008: "progress report" [Aug 08]
In two years, Dubai has clearly affirmed itself on the global art
market with the first edition of Art Dubai in 2007 - inviting some 30
galleries from around the globe - and with the establishment of both
Christie’s (2006) and Bonhams (2008) in the city. Since their arrival,
the two action houses have been selling works by modern and
contemporary artists from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Iran and
they have succeeded in fostering growing demand as well as significant
price inflation. The Dubai prices represented his record.
Carried by the financial strength of the United Arab Emirates and the
increasingly global reach of its national investors, Iranian artists
are becoming increasingly popular among regional collectors.
For example, on the 31 October 2007 the Dubai office of Christie’s sold works by Shirin NESHAT
above the 100,000 dollars line for the first time. Shirin Neshat is the
most well-known contemporary Iranian artist on the international scene
and his works have been selling at auctions since 2000 in London and
New York.
The best-known Iranian sculptor, Parviz TANAVOLI,
aged 71, was in fact absent from the auction world until 2007. However,
the success in Dubai in 2006 of the younger Iranian artist, Farhad
Moshiri, appears to have had a considerable and belated knock-on effect
on Tanavoli's market prices. His first works to appear at auction
generated between 65,000 and 85,000 dollars (February 2007). In October
of the same year the hammer fell at 280,000 dollars (Christie’s Dubai)
and in April 2008, he became the most expensive living Iranian artist
when a unique piece he created in 1975 entitled The Wall (Oh Persepolis)
fetched no less than 2.5 million dollars. The stele cast in bronze and
standing nearly 2 metres high had been estimated by Christie’s at 400
to 600 thousand dollars.
Like Shirin Neshat's work, the creations of Farhad MOSHIRI
(aged 45 and born in the Iranian city of Shiraz) reflect both Iranian
and Western culture. He studied art in California before returning to
Teheran in 1991 where he has lived ever since. His works have been
exhibited around the world including Rome, London, Berlin, New-York and
Geneva. In 2003, his installation at the sixth Sharjah biennial
entitled Golden Love super Deluxe attracted much comment: a
collector's showcase containing mixed objects – bullets, mobile phones,
cherubs and Walt Disney figurines – all coated with a fine layer of
gold… an ironical transformation of diverse objects from the spheres of
war, technology and popular culture into "precious items". Three years
after the Biennial, Christie’s in Dubai presented Moshiri's first
canvas to appear at auction: a satellite view of Iran. The work sold
for 40,000 dollars, four times the high-end estimate, and giving the
artist a powerful start to his future auction momentum: collectors
clearly have deep pockets for Moshiri. A year after that result, a
satellite view of the world made of 95,000 Swarovski crystals
demolished its original estimate of 60 to 80 thousand dollars when it
sold for 500 thousand dollars! This rocketing success has continued in
2008 with a brilliant work using the same crystals and entitled, Eshgh (Love), which fetched 900,000 dollars last March at Bonhams Dubai.
The vitality of the Middle-Eastern market is giving a number of young
Iranian artists a healthy price index on the secondary art market. The
work of two Iranian women, Shirin ALIABADI and Shadi GHADIRIAN
(born in 1973 and 1974 respectively), considers the contradictions that
women face in Iran with humour. The Shadi Ghadirian's photos use the
obsolete aesthetic of 19th century photography to show veiled women
with contemporary objects. Her most famous piece, Stereo, sold
for £9,000 (over $18,000) in 2007 (Sotheby's, London). In October 2007,
Christie’s Dubai generated a bid of 50,000 dollars for a painting by Afshin PIRHASHEMI (born 1974) entitled Those four Days. This was only his second auction appearance. Just a month earlier in Paris, Artcurial sold his painting Memory for 6,000 euros… In April 2008, one had to bid up to 110,000.00 dollars for his triptych untitled Lonely created in 2005 (Christie’s Dubai).
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