Against the Widening Gulf: Arab Art in Tehran

Rahel Aima | Art in America | 6th May 2016

Contemporary art in Tehran is, it seems, always viewed through a political lens – even more so when the art on show is drawn from other Gulf countries. Not surprisingly, key social tensions are a common theme – modernization, religious strictures, regional rivalries. One image on display features women “gleefully playing bumper cars—the closest women can come to driving in Saudi Arabia.”