Contextual Analysis of Neo-traditionalism in Iranian Contemporary Art (1960s), from Foucauldian Discourse Analysis Perspective

The “neo-traditionalist” discourse has appeared following the general strategies of the power structure and the mindset of the intellectuals in contemporary Iranian art. Intellectuals mental support of the creation of an anti-west-toxification (a derogatory term used for westernization) discourse and returning to former ways, and also the support of power structure for creation of a neo-traditionalist discourse, directs the artists to a path of differentiating the modernist Iranian art from the western modern art. In such a circumstance, it is obvious that artists would accept their position in the predominant discourse, and legitimize themselves by it.
Analyzing the relationship between the level of artists’ (neo-traditionalist) discourse and the levels of other intellectual and institutional discourses in the contemporary Iranian art and critiquing the influence of these levels on each other are the objectives of this study.
The research method is analyticaldescriptive- historical and the data is collected through documentary research method. The overall approach and theoretical framework is based on some of the concept in of Michel Foucault’s historicism, the French philosopher of the twentieth century