The most important media that could convey the message of the revolutions to the whole world is revolutionary pamphlets or posters. An economically affordable media in which images and texts are used. These pamphlets are designed to express and reflect the ideas of the leaders of the revolution.
Pioneers in the Field of Designing Revolutionary Pamphlets and Posters in Iran
In one of the chapters of the book “Graphic of Revolution: Committed Social-Religious Art in Iran,” Mortaza Goudarzi has studied the posters and pamphlets of the Revolution of Iran and several other countries. In his article “Contemporary Political Graphics of Iran,” Ahmad Aghaqolizadeh examines the political graphics of post-revolutionary Iran.
Arash Tanhayei in two articles “Posters in the Years of Transformation: Conversation with Kourosh Shishegaran” and “The Peak of Posters in Iran: Posters of the Revolution with the Group 57” has talked about the designers and the period of designing Iranian revolutionary pamphlets. Abolfazl Aali in his book “Ten Years With Graphic Designers of the Islamic Revolution” has collected pictorial samples of revolutionary pamphlets in Iran. In the article “Introduction to the Analysis of the Message of the Cultural-Ideological Image After the Revolution,” Daneshgar has studies the features of the revolutionary pamphlets created during the first decade of the Revolution and the contradictory effects of some of them on the audience.
Revolutionary Pamphlets in Iran
The beginnings of the art of designing political posters in Iran can perhaps be traced back to the caricatures that were created during the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911) and the time that the printing industry appeared in Iran. Such works of art were banned during the 1960s and 1970s due to extreme censorship. However, in the early days of the Islamic Revolution, the situation was changed. Despite the bans, some artists created these artworks secretly. One of these groups was Group 57, which was founded in 1978. In 1979, this group held the first art show which surprisingly was reported by Keyhan Newspaper. The exhibition was very well received by the large attendance of people; it attracted thousands of people from all over Tehran. Many revolutionary slogans were used in these pamphlets on which there was no signature of the designer. There was only a small logo at the bottom of most of them, which showed a fist and a star – apparently the same as the logo of Group 57. The importance of speed in making these pamphlets caused them to be simple, friendly, and at the same time explicit. On the other hand, the lack of a tradition or model for creating political Iranian pamphlets and posters has caused some artworks to be reflecting – through displaying the clenched fists and using red and black colours –socialist realism. (Picture Nos. 19 and 20)
Picture No. 19: Akbar Aharipour, 1979
Picture No. 20: 1979
Figure No. 1: Comparing the Iranian Pamphlets in the 1980s and 2010s in terms of Themes
Figure No. 2: Comparing the Iranian Pamphlets in the 1980s and 2010s in Terms of Signs
Another feature of Iranian political pamphlets is that they are less likely to include texts. However, by looking at the pamphlets created during the World War and other revolutions, one can find a more active role in the textual messages to the extent that some of them have been designed only by texts.
At first, the Iranians who were creating posters and pamphlets engaged in designing pamphlets about the Revolution spontaneously but gradually, they started following the ideology of the Revolution; although the Iranian designers have followed the communist countries in some forms because they address a different theme from that of posters created in the above-mentioned countries, they have utilized the signs and symbols and in some cases changed them to create new meanings different from and influencing the existing posters and pamphlets in other countries.
One of the most important slogans was “neither East nor West” – which was emphasized by Imam Khomeini (RA) – and the designers of pamphlets in Iran not only encourages the audience to fight against imperialism but also call for standing up against communism as well. Of course, such pamphlets were designed in the years after the Revolution; the ones created before or at the time of the Revolution were designed mostly to express the lack of freedom and call for participation in the Revolution.
This group of posters and pamphlets – designed by Group 57 – is very different from the ones created by the group working on the theme of Islamic thought in terms of form, structure and theme.
It can be said that after the 1980s, the creation of revolutionary pamphlets gradually began to decline such that, during the 1990s and 2000s, this media was abandoned.
Until again, in 2009 after the events of December 30, 2009, a group called “Poster Movement” began designing revolutionary pamphlets and posters. 30 years after the Revolution, this group of the second generation of the Revolution once again began working on the basis of the same theories proposed at the beginning of the Revolution.
But this time, they are doing their best to use less of the previous signs and symbols. Although the slogans are the same as before i.e., confronting imperialism, the United States and the expansion of industries, the techniques for designing as well as the visual signs would undergo a change and appear in a new form. Of course, the group also designs some pamphlets with the aim of changing lifestyles and social abnormalities. (Picture Nos. 29-33)
Picture No. 29: Mosavar Group, 2010s
Picture No. 30: Hamid Qorbanpour, the 2010s
Picture No. 31: Rahmat Nabyollahzadeh, the 2010s
In 2009, designing the revolutionary pamphlets in Iran has resumed once again. But there was a change in the design and use of signs and symbols (Figure Nos. 1, 2) and even a new approach, which almost had not existed in the 1980s, can be seen in the pamphlets in terms of the subject matter; approaches such as using domestic goods, changing the method of fuel consumption, returning to a kind of religious culture and following the martyrs of the beginning of the Revolution as role models.
Picture No. 32: Mohammad-Hasan Salavati, 2010s
Picture No. 33: Seyyed Mohammad Reza, 2010s
Reference: “Glory of Art (Jelveh-ye Honar).” al-Zahra Academic Quarterly Journal. Volume 10, Number 3, Winter 2018.
Archive of Culture and Art
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