K. Tromp (Kasper) MA

Kasper is an art historian specializing in contemporary art in the MENA-region. He holds a BA and MA degree from Leiden University. In 2017, he interned at the Aaran Gallery in Tehran.

Project description
Despite the relative absence of critical art historical writing in Iranian academia, there exists a vibrant contemporary art scene in Iran in which artists, curators and critics produce a variety of ‘informal’ art discourses. A recurring subject in such writings is the human soul, understood as a subjective prism through which the world is perceived, interpreted and reconstituted in creative practices. While several authors have alluded to a return of spirituality in Iranian art since the 1960s (i.e. Saqqakhaneh, neo-traditionalism), most studies emphasize ‘outer’ formal relationships between modern and traditional art, rather than ‘inner’ subjective engagements of artists with spiritual thought. My PhD project examines how Iranian artists interact with ideas of Islamic mysticism and spirituality in their creative processes, and how these inspire alternative genealogies of the modern and contemporary, beyond Iranian state traditionalism and Western ‘tradition-modernity’ strictures. Seeing as artists ascribe to their interactions with literary sources (i.e. mystical poetry) a transformative force, my project will re-conceptualize such source texts, from passive heritage to ‘living’ presences in the contemporary world. Such direct agency is suggestive of the multiple sources and non-linear progression of Iranian modernities, and calls into question the art-historical discontinuity of Islamic art’s genealogy with the advent of the modern age.