'Echoes of Blue'

NEW YORK -- The painting is beautiful to see -- an orange-striped curtain hangs from a wood pole above a shimmering ocean -- but the title "Separation" hints at another meaning.\nThe curtain painted by Shahla Etemadi represents those put up in Caspian Sea swimming spots in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to keep men and women separate.\nThe painting is a part of "Echoes in Blue," an exhibition of contemporary Iranian artists on view through April 29 at The National Arts Club.\nAlthough Iran is in the midst of a struggle between its reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami, and its hard-line clerical rulers, the exhibit's curators -- both Iranian exiles -- hope to puncture the American stereotype that Iranians are narrow-minded Islamic fundamentalists.\n"If there is a theme to the exhibit, it is the theme of freedom and the desire of the artist, the society at large, for freedom and very much the lack of it in society there," Hamid Ladjevardi said. \n"There is a beautiful side to the people of every country regardless of what their government's rhetoric is or its actions," said his co-curator, Homa Taraji, the president of Paradi, an international fine arts organization based in Los Angeles.\nThe show of 55 paintings from 13 artists working in Iran today was put together with the cooperation of The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Although the Iranian government requires artists to stay away from sensitive topics, including politics and religion, many of the works demonstrate the struggle of living in a revolutionary state, Ladjevardi said.\nIn "Trapped" by Shideh Tami, a dark hand emerges from the bottom of the painting and wraps itself around the neck of a female face painted in melancholy blues, blacks and grays.\nIn Hossein Khosrowjerdi's "Paper Boat," two men in mud-caked bandages stand in dark water and gaze forlornly at a tiny boat made of notebook paper.\nAnd the highly geometric paintings of Rezvan Sadeghzadeh feature groups of women, their backs to the viewer, wearing brightly colored scarves and floor-length dresses. In some, such as "Nude Woman," one woman is isolated from the group because her head is not covered.\nNot all the works in "Echoes in Blues" are political, however. Four still lifes show sunflowers and wildflowers in vases on tables. And all the works can be appreciated for the skill shown and variety of technique, which includes oil painting, digital images and mixed media.\nBoth curators have lived in the United States for decades, but came about their connection to contemporary Iranian art in different ways.\nLadjevardi's family owned a large Tehran corporation, which was putting together a collection of contemporary Iranian art for its new headquarters when the revolution came. The paintings and building were seized, he said. He had already earned multiple college degrees in the United States and, after the revolution, pursued a successful business career here.\nTaraji moved to California in the 1970s for a master's degree and then went to work in the aerospace industry there. Three days before she was to return home, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage.\nExcept for one trip in the early 1980s, Taraji did not return to Iran until 2001. Art had always been a hobby, and when she did return she found "an amazing flourishing of contemporary art."\nSince then, Taraji has traveled to Iran several times to gather works for the show and to consult with the curator of the Tehran museum, which received a gold medal of achievement from The National Arts Club last week upon the opening of "Echoes in Blue."\nAs for Ladjevardi, he has not been back to Iran since the revolution.\n"This exhibit is a good way for people of the U.S. to understand that no matter … how much darkness envelopes a country in terms of its art and culture, the light of Iranian art can never be totally repressed," he said.\n"Echoes in Blue" is scheduled to travel to California for a show in late September at the Hedi Khorsand Gallery in West Hollywood.