Mahnaz (Golnaz) Shaval Manesh was born in 1989 and graduated from the Fine Art School for girls, Kamal-ol-Molk Art School, and Sooreh University.

Through 15 years of her experience in Art field, she became acquainted with the fields of painting, miniature, calligraphy, etc., and also participated in national and international art events. She has gathered various researches in this field and has tried to create a novel image and redefine this concept by the visual confrontation of the miniature and the modern painting art that has a long history in the art field in Iran.

The outcome of these 2 years of attempts is gathered as two collections called “the tradition demolition” that will be exhibited in two galleries in America in the second half of 2021.

The contextual concept of these two collections is actually the concurrence of the traditional and modern art that resulted in the fracture and cracking of the noble core of the traditional art; assuming that after the modernism entrance to Iran we cannot look at the traditional art as we did before and therefore, the definition received by our ancestors cannot be transferred to us immediately. It is through the confrontation of the modern world with the traditional art that the definition of the old art is accessible to us only by the interpretation and hermeneutical attempts for reinterpretation and meaning analysis.

Therefore, we can see a kind of novel miniature pathology in these collections. This artist believes that these pieces are pointing to the traditionalist artists of today who frequently try to present the same old concepts in the traditional techniques to the modern world and are powerless in renovating and reforming the traditional miniature as they are trapped in the visual stereotypes.

It seems that the deliverance from this state requires the understanding of the intellectual origins and theoretical basics of both currents. The art modernism in the West has resulted from the romanticism art current that considered the individuality of the artist and the capacity of their emotional articulation as the priority; while in the traditional art, not the individuality but the collective historical and predominant patterns dominated. The traditional artist defined themselves in the regulations that were more strict and rigid than the modern techniques today. The artist was not allowed to depart from these regulations and their creativity outbreak had to be formed in between these frameworks. In addition, by overpowering the old value scheme like the Christianity in Europe and or the Greek-Roman myths, the modern artist has compelled themselves to confront the routine vivid reality and their art was meant to show their emotions to the reality.

Nowadays, we have to know the audience and not think that we are only negotiating with the “tradition” of the miniature, but we are producing an art piece for an audience who is desirous to see the pieces related to their lives and mentality.

Naturally, this kind of viewpoint does not disaffirm the rich pieces of the ancestors in the miniature and the created masterpieces by them. They were the offspring of their era and produced art for the audiences of their time. However, we have to keep in mind that there are different levels of audiences, consumers, and art supporters; a lot of former artists were bound in the court environment and values, while today the basic relations of art between their supporters, audiences, and values has remarkably changed.

A number of the main components of these changes were mentioned in the definition given by the artist, but the changes were not just limited to these ones, and speed as one of the main factors has dominated this world. The objects had lost their materialistic consistency and originality and the new system of images such as photography, cinema, and the internet have become the mediator between our view and nature. Can the relatively restrictive techniques and mentality about the art respond to the necessities of this new world?

The author had an interview with the artist:

Give us a summary of your activity in the field of the miniature.

Before entering the university, I became familiar with this field. At the very beginning, I started studying the distinctive works such as The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp in the Tabriz school, The Meraj-Nameh of Teymouri, the Laquerworks related to Qajar and Zand dynasty, the pieces by recent painters such as Hossein Behzad, Mohammad Ali Zavieh and the contemporary masters in this field under the supervision of proficient masters. Studying calligraphy and miniature in the university, I gained more experience about the various orientations of this field.

Tell us about the collection of “the tradition demolition”.

Modern art is a war against our primitive knowledge and manners. It is a revolution against the obsolescence, repetition, and distressing in the old definitions. Nowadays, the image frame of the viewpoint of the audience has no similarity to the archaic scenes; as our definitions from the main concepts of old miniature like “beauty”, “nature”, “beloved”, etc. is changed. Once in a radio interview Forough Farrokhzad said that the definition of love has changed and for instance, the new psychology shows that the character of “Majnun” is not a lover, but instead he is a masochist. The image of the beloved with colorful clothes flying in the clouds is not a meaningful and real image, too. So, the artists need a new explanation of reality registration.

Please give us an explanation about the nature of the demolition in the form and the fulfillment of the works.

The world of the artist must primarily take a form in themselves and then be reflected on the drawing canvas. I always keep this quote in my mind from Marcuse, from the Frankfurt School, that “The truth of art lies in its power to break the monopoly of established reality to define what is real.”

So, in order to explain the concept of the "tradition demolition", firstly, I needed to wreck the main basics of the original pieces, i.e. to defeat the coloring in the traditional arts, eliminating the stereotyped and accustomed frames, choosing novel subjects, and also selecting the implementation material which is completely different from the traditional works.

How much do you think the audience communicates with your pieces of work?

The perception or the emotion of the audience of the artwork and its effect on them has always been an important point in art philosophy. But this point is not considered as an aspect of the artistic rituals and the exhibition of the traditional arts nowadays. This monotony has made the audience not follow the traditional miniature that much.

According to my experience, a lot of artists have insisted on the importance of the implementation manner of the artwork at the beginning of the twentieth century, and they had to inevitably examine the significations and also the implicitness of the signs from the first step, and create a strong relationship between the “piece language” analysis and the aesthetical researches through that. By a proper explanation of what is known as the mentality of the artist, we can even create a popular image for the audience today. The demolition of the traditional techniques is not only considered by me or the other Iranian artists. The modern western artists also banished the traditional and longtime realistic painting techniques. But there are some artists who work in this field and became famous like Lucian Freud. That said, modern painting gradually found its audience.

In your opinion, will the modern arts defeat the traditional ones?

The tree and its roots will never get separated from each other; the noble miniature art of Iran is rich in the merger of knowledge and various arts. In a noble piece of miniature, you can see the art of papermaking, Illuminating manuscript, calligraphy, gold-smearing, tabling art, tashir art, etc., and sometimes other arts such as carpet design, traditional sketch, architecture, and pieces of knowledge such as literature, mathematics, and astronomy can be seen. So, it is not possible to deny or question such artwork with these strong roots.

Maybe living life with modern technologies affect the viewpoint of the aesthetes to the traditional arts but the cloud of modern art can never cover the unlimited light of noble art. These pieces of art will remain forever but they will never be done like before.

How and where these two collections of artworks will be exhibited?

The “tradition demolition” is in the form of two collections, that will be exhibited in two galleries in Washington and simultaneously they will be shown in two 3D exhibitions virtually in the Holding of Iranians’ Art. The difference between these two collections is in the number and the dimensions of artworks.  

Publication of a research article in Herfeh-Honarmand magazine 79No. 2021