Isfahan embodies the greatness of imperial Persia. In the early 16th century, the Safavid dynasty made Persia the homeland of the Shiite vision of Islam. In 1598 the Safavid Shah Abbas the Great moved his capital to Isfahan in the center of the country, and rebuilt the city with broad avenues, elaborate gardens, majestic bridges, a magnificent royal palace, and stunning mosques. Under this enlightened monarch, music, literature, and miniature painting flourished, and Isfahan became world-famous for the beauty of its carpets and textiles. His successors continued to build magnificent palaces, mosques, and schools. They established a flourishing tradition of support for the decorative arts, notably calligraphy and miniature painting. Isfahan’s era of glory lasted into the nineteenth century.

Friday, May 14

ISFAHAN IS HALF THE WORLD

Lecture Safavid Iran: Friend or Foe?
The newly established Safavid Shiite regime suffered birth pangs comparable to the adjustments of contemporary Europe to the culture of the Renaissance. The Safavids and European monarchs collaborated against the Ottoman empire which had already conquered large parts of Europe and threatened to expand eastward into Iran as well. Prize-winning historian Abbas Milani (Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University) paints in deft, colorful strokes an image of Iranian society in this golden age and the role it played in international politics, focusing on the capital city of Isfahan as the perfect metaphor for the aspirations of Safavid royalty, particularly Shah Abbas.

Performance Dances from the Isfahan Region
Classical and folk dances from the Isfahan region performed by Ney Nava dance troupe, led by Shida Pegahi.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

JEWEL OF THE SAFAVIDS

Lecture The City of Isfahan and Its Glorious Architecture
“Isfahan nesf-e jahan” said the Safavids; “Isfahan is half the world,” and its architecture comes close to justifying this famous couplet. In moving the capital of Persia to Isfahan, Shah Abbas set out to create a glorious showplace of art, culture, and religion, to which travelers, ambassadors, and merchants from Europe and Asia would eagerly travel. Its beauty still remains as a center of exquisite art and architecture for the world to admire. Dr. Johanna Movassat (Lecturer in Art and Art History, San Jose State University), a popular lecturer on Asian architecture, is married to an Iranian and considers Isfahan her “second home.” Her lecture will include consideration of the key role of Shah Abbas in the planning of his imperial city.

Lecture Miniature Paintings of the Safavid Period
Miniature painters fostered by the Safavid court produced dazzling works of art that often broke new ground in their restricted genre. Isfahan’s artists, often using a single hair of the paintbrush, produced works of unsurpassed delicacy and detail, though simple in their themes and content: a princess bathing in a secluded stream; a king holding court. Carel Bertram (San Francisco State University) will analyze the aesthetics of Persian miniatures and explain their narrative function.

Performance Classical Iranian Music from the Isfahan-Shiraz Region
Performed by Mr. Mahmoud Zoufonoun and ensemble. Mr. Zoufonoun is probably the leading expert on classical Iranian music in the United States. His ensemble will play selected classical pieces and offer a demonstration of the authentic instruments on which they perform. Mr. Zoufonoun’s pupil, Professor Manuchehr Ghiassi of Santa Clara University, will discuss the function and structure of the music.

Lecture The Imagined Embrace: Christians and Jews Under the Safavids
The Safavid Dynasty proclaimed Twelver Shiite Islam as the state religion, and its rulers embarked on a rigorous campaign to convert muslims and non-muslims of Iran to Shiism. What was the status of religious minorities in Safavid Iran? How were Christians, Jews, Sunnis and Sufis treated? Did the state have an interest in favoring one against another? Professor Jaleh Pirnazar, (Near Eastern Studies Department, UC Berkeley) will address these questions through an examination of contemporary texts.

Lecture Carpets, Textiles and Other Applied Arts of the Safavids
Persian carpets are prized for their exquisite designs and colors, and carpets from Isfahan above all. But the Safavids excelled in metalwork, ceramics, and other areas of the applied arts as well. No one is better qualified to discuss the Safavid accomplishments in these fields than renowned art historian Walter B. Denny (University of Massachussets at Amherst), a dynamic lecturer and a consultant to numerous museums and private collectors.

Panel Discussion
All participants address audience questions.

Presenters

Carel Bertram, Humanities, San Francisco State University

Walter Denny, Art History, U Massachusetts Amherst

Abbas Milani, Political Sciences, Stanford

Johanna Movassat, Art History, San Jose State University

Jaleh Pirnazar, Persian Literature, UC Berkeley

Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

Without photography, today’s world would be unrecognizable. From public museums to personal memories, from medicine to the movies, from newsrooms to NASA, photographic imaging has, over the past two centuries, become indispensable to understanding ourselves and our universe. Like jazz and the computer, photography (including cinema) became, over the past century, a universal language. From the commonplace to the commercial, from the artists to the scientists, photography flowed seamlessly into world culture long before the word “globalization” came into use.

Introduction

Sandra Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography, SF Museum of Modern Art, introduces the day’s program.

Lecture  Ahead of Their Time: Thirty-Eight Photographers of Genius at the Getty 1839-1969
Weston Naef, Curator of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, will discuss photography as an art since its invention in 1838: a cavalcade of genius from the photographic innovators of the earliest days to those of our own era.

Lecture  Our Universe Will Never Again Be the Same
Dr. John Grunsfeld, NASA scientist and astronaut who repaired the Hubble in space will discuss how photography has transformed our understanding of the space/time continuum and the unbelievable results of the Hubble Telescope still coming in.

Demonstration  Mammoth!
Tracy Storer, operator of one of the few 20” x 24” Polaroid cameras in the world, will photograph two members of the audience, drawn by lot. The special role large scale photography has played, from Egypt in the 1850s, to digital scanning, to the self portraits of Chuck Close, will be discussed.

Lecture  Entertaining the World
Dr. Elizabeth Daley, Dean, USC School of Cinema-Television, University of Southern California, explores the idea that the soul of every civilization is laid bare by the stories it tells in the context of today’s universal language – and preeminent storytelling medium – film.

Lecture  Re-presenting Reality
Drawing on his 45 years as a photographer and author, William Carter suggests that photographs project what is inside ourselves; he will show how all our photos are shaped by private memory, public history, and pervasive values.

Panel Discussion
Audience questions will be addressed by the distinguished panel.

Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

Moderator: Julia Trilling, (Former Professor of Architecture/Urban Studies at Harvard University, Currently Senior Research Specialist at UC Berkeley)

Friday, February 20, 8:00 – 10:00 pm

POSTWAR FRANCE: EVOLVING POLITICS AND CULTURE

Lecture  The Remaking of Postwar France: From the Fourth Republic to de Gaulle
In this keynote lecture, Irwin Wall (Professor of History Emeritus, UC Riverside) will describe and analyze the rise of France from its postwar devastation to a renewed position of power and prestige in the diplomatic world of the 1960s, when Charles de Gaulle dared to challenge the basic premises of American cold war policies.

Performance  Saluting Parisian Bebop of Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke
The Larry Vuckovich Trio and guests (Larry Vuckovich, piano; Stjepko “Steve” Gut, trumpet; Isla Eckinger, bass; and Omar Clay, drums) will perform a collection of jazz and bebop standards, showcasing the evolution of music taking place in Paris after World War II.

Saturday, February 21, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm

FRANCE IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES: FASHION, FILM AND THE LITERARY ARTS

Lecture  French Postwar Culture and the Critique of Everyday Life

Two historical processes dominated Postwar France: the loss of France’s colonies and its adoption of more American-style patterns of consumption in the midst of an accelerated state-led modernization effort. Kristin Ross (Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University) will examine how decolonization coincided, then, for the French, with what some social theorists were called a new “colonization of everyday life.”

Lecture  The New Look: Haute Couture in Postwar France
In a country recovering from the privations of war, the rich fabrics and full flaring skirts of French designers, such as “New Look” originator Christian Dior, held great significance as a cultural symbol of luxury and prosperity. Melissa Leventon, former curator of textile arts at the DeYoung Museum, will discuss postwar French fashion, including the work of Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga and Yves St. Laurent.

Performance  L’air de Paris
The Baguette Quartette will offer a taste of Café music as was performed in Postwar Paris.

Lecture The French Economy and the New Europe: Between Market and State
In the first two decades after the Liberation in 1944, Paris once again became one of the preeminent cultural capitals of the world, exporting trend-setting fashion, filmmaking and literary style to the United States and a revived Europe. John Zysman (Co-Director, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, UC Berkeley) will explore the postwar revival and modernization of the French economy.

Lecture  The Cannes Film Festival, Cosmopolitanism and the Quatre Cents Coups
The key to the Cannes Festival’s success in 1950s France resided in its promotion as chic, hip and cosmopolitan as opposed to merely French. At the same time, the Festival also launched two of the most exported French products of the era: Brigitte Bardot and the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague). In this lecture, Vanessa Schwartz (Department of History, University of Southern California) will describe the important role played by Cannes in creating an international film culture after the war.

Panel Discussion 
From liberation to the new wave: Is there a lasting impact of postwar french politics and culture? Julia Trilling moderates.

Presented in cooperation with the Consul General of France, the Alliance Francaise de San Francisco, and the Mechanics’ Institute Library.

Presenters

Melissa Leventon, Curatrix
Kristin Ross, Comparative Literature, NYUniversity
Vanessa Schwartz, History, USC
Julia Trilling, Design, UC Berkeley and NYUniversity
Lary Vuckovich musician
Irwin Wall, History, UC Riverside
John Zysman, Political Science, UC Berkeley