Description
Limited edition of 3
This character has been a main character in many of my works.Naser al-Din Shah Qajar was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 1848 to 1896 when he was assassinated.He was the first modern Persian monarch who formally visited Europe and wrote of his travels in his memoirs. A modernist, he allowed the establishment of newspapers in the country and made use of modern forms of technology such as telegraphs, photography and also planned concessions for railways and irrigation works. Despite his modernizing reforms on education, his tax reforms were abused by people in power, and the government was viewed as corrupt and unable to protect commoners from abuse by the upper class which led to increasing antigovernmental sentiments.Qajar Iran (1785-1925) began with notions of beauty that were largely gender-undifferentiated; that is, beautiful men and women were depicted with very similar facial and bodily features,we can find more artworks about couple female-female or man-man in this period and before.For example, Safavid era illustrations have intimate male-male embraces “that are often catalogued as ‘amorous couple.’” It was also not uncommon in the medieval era for powerful, authoritative or influential figures that were from the upper class to have a preference for boys despite being married or having concubines.But At the end of the 19th century, due to cultural and social factors, depiction of male-male loving couples gradually disappeared.I was inspired by Hafez’s poems to make this work. Hafez said:
پیرهن چاک و غزلخوان و صراحی در دست نیمه شب دوش به بالین من آمد بنشست
سر فرا گوش من اورد و به آواز حزین گفت ای عاشق دیرینه من خوابت هست ؟
***Arment rent song – singing goblet in His hand
*** Eye , contest – seeking lip lamenting
***Came , at midnight , last night , to my pillow and there sate .
*** To my ear , He brought His head and in a low soft voice
