A. R. SAMI AZAR

Alireza Sami Azar received his PhD in Architecture from UCE University, England. He has translated and written several articles and books, including Persian translation of Movements in Art since 1945 by Edward Lucie- Smith (2001) and Owj va Oful-i Mudirnism (Rise and Decline of Modernism) (2009). Dr. Sami Azar was the Head of the Centre of Visual Arts of Iran and the Director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art from 1998-2005. He is currently teaching world contemporary art history.

What is the essence of contemporary art objects that makes them so different from modern canvases? This is the main question recurring in the Sami Azar’s essay which invokes both historical and theoretical contexts to modern and contemporary art. The critical parameters set up by the great commentator of modern art; Clement Greenberg, in his precise article of 1960; Modernist Painting, are compared with the views put forward by the early exponent of the notion of contemporary art; Arthur Danto, in his notorious argument; The End of the Art. It is concluded that the crucial aspect of modern art crystallised in various modern styles and movements, was the inner perceptions and relations, within the specific medium, that has been replaced by a depthlessness which seem to haunt contemporary art ...