October 22, 1998 - Grand Opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts
Royal Persian Paintings:The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925
Thanks to Curator Laila Diba & colleagues

The Board of Trustees and Director invite you to a Members' Preview Day, Thursday October 22, 1998, 1-5 pm. Members Private viewing 6-9 p.m. and Reception Brooklyn Museum of Art Membership Department 200 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, New York 11238~6052 -
Telephone (718) 638-5000, ext. 326 - This invitation admits two and must be presented for admission. No RSVP is required. ( This is an invitation I received for the opening,  fortunately, the exhibition will be on for a few months, do visit it if you are in New York )

Dr. Assadullah Souren Melikian Chirvani, Director of Research at the Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques in Paris, and arts correspondent for The International Herald Tribune, will lecture on "Qajar Art: The Power of the Word," on Saturday, October 24, at noon in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. Dr. Melikian Chirvani, a renowned scholar, will explore the significance of poetry in Persian culture and its role in visual arts during the Qajar epoch. This event is co-sponsored by the Members of the BMA and the Museum's Asian Art Council.

This exhibition, on view until January 24, 1999, is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, dedicated to expanding American understanding of history and culture, as well as by Massoume and Fereidoun Soudavar in memory of their sons Alireza and Mohammad.

Major support is provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Aryeh Family, and Hashem Khosrovani. Additional support is provided by the Museum's Asian Art Council, Alsaneh Al-e Mohammad Dabashi, Mr. and Mrs. Dara Zargar, Dr. Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen, and Patrons of  The Qajar Gala. An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Planning and research for the exhibition were supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Hagop Kevorkian Fund, and the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Foundation. Funds for the catalogue were provided through a publications endowment created by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

To heighten your enjoyment of the exhibition Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, Patricia Counress Jellicoe will lecture on the Crown Jewels of Iran. Countess Jellicoe is an internationally respected writer and lecturer. She has contributed articles to Architectural Digest, The Illustrated London News, and the Spectator and has lectured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Countess Jellicoe has led tours in the Middle East, Asia and Europe for the Metropolitan and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Space for this lecture is limited. Reservations wil be taken on first-come, first-served basis.

The entire exhibition is presently  in Los Angeles from Feb 24 to May 9, 1999
Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch
LOCATION:  UCLA at Armand Hammer -  Museum of Art and Cultural Center
ADDRESS:  10899 Wilshire Boulevard,  Westwood 90024
Feb 24-May 9, 1999

It is the first major survey to focus on the large-scale court and popular paintings from Persia's Qajar Dynasty (1785-1925). The exhibition includes more than 100 artworks, and took nearly five years to plan and arrange.
The Powers That Were in Persia;
Gigantic portraits of Qajar rulers at the UCLA/Hammer Museum  possess an authority of historical proportions.
From  Art Review, Saturday, February 27, 1999  Byline: CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT,   TIMES ART CRITIC
Among the stranger and more surprising exhibitions of recent months, "Royal Persian Painting: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925" chronicles a type of art with which few in the West have any familiarity, despite its mostly 19th century vintage. That's the surprising part. The strange part is the painting itself--sophisticated, conservative and authoritarian in style.

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