Introduction to “The Nightingale's Butcher Manifesto” and “Volume and Environment II”

The introductory text introduces two pre-revolution Iranian manifestos of modern art, namely the “Nightingale's Butcher Manifesto” (1951) and “Volume & Environment 2” (1976). It describes the socio-political context in which the texts emerged and compares them as different responses to similar issues separated by a time span of 25 years. It argues that these rare examples of Iranian art manifestos can be regarded as milestones of an entry into and an exit from modernism in Iranian art.