Typical Iranian Wedding

Christie's is proud to offer Typical Iranian Wedding, a monumental diptych by avant-garde artist Rokni Haerizadeh, which portrays a lavish wedding party, with multiple socio-cultural nuances that are characteristic of Iranian weddings. The witty narrative illustrated by the artist is grounded in his deep understanding of Persian society and is a humorous depiction of how weddings are celebrated by Iran's nouveau riche society with its overindulgence and excess. The work derives its humour from the ostentation of the party and the revelers, which is a stark contrast to the conservative Iranian political regime. Haerizadeh's work has been completed on two canvases that he has used cleverly to show the two halves of a segregated gathering at a grand wedding congregation; the two panels reinforce a curtain dividing each section, with the female attendees occupying the grand ballroom while the male guests spread out in an outdoor garden. As such, the artist has ingeniously brought to the forefront the segregation within the contemporary Iranian society. The left panel is dominated by the over-the-top, tawdrily dressed bride in a sea of female guests who are dressed to the nines. Haerizadeh has carefully painted the gowns worn by the women to reflect the fashion sense of the Iranian nouveau riche for whom an occasion such as a wedding is a platform to display their newly acquired wealth. While some of Haerizadeh's female figures' appearances are somewhat risqué with their outfit choices, they are juxtaposed against others wearing head scarves and conservative attire. A group of younger-looking women are seen gyrating to the tunes of the Persian pop sensation, Shahram Shabpareh. These scenes of sheer indulgence underscore the reality of modern day Iran, the irony of which is that unrestrained revelry and excess manage to exist uninhibitedly within the conservative Islamic Republic.
The right panel of the diptych portrays a crowd of men engaging in debauchery. There is a feast laid out for the men, which is at once a lavish display of wealth and a symbol of the inequality between the men and women in Iran due to its contrast with the measly spread of food laid out for the women. A wedding singer is belting out tunes for the guests who are carousing with abandon. Overall, the atmosphere depicts a blatant sense of over-consumption whilst the guests enjoy a lavish evening.
Rokni Haerizadeh is known to use his art as a medium for social commentary and his diptych, Typical Iranian Wedding, is by no means an exception. His work is a witty illustration of the ongoing events of a typical Iranian wedding celebration while bringing forth the idiosyncrasies of upper class Persian society. Typical Iranian Wedding is undeniably one of the greatest works by Rokni Haerizadeh to ever come to auction.