Art Talk: Iran’s Art World: 1960s - 1970s

Join art world figures Bob Colacello, Layla S. Diba, and Nicky Nodjoumi, for an evening of conversation as we revisit the contemporary art world of Iran in the 1960s and '70s.

Bob Colacello was editor of Interview from 1971 to 1983, where he was involved in all aspects of business and life at The Factory, Warhol’s studio. In 1976 Colacello travelled to Iran with Warhol, at which time the artist photographed the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Queen Farah Pahlavi. After his tenure with Interview, Colacello began writing for Vanity Fair magazine, and has been a regular contributor since, writing extended profiles on a wide range of public personalities, including Balthus, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, Doris Duke, Estée Lauder, Rudolf Nureyev, and Liza Minnelli. Colacello has also established himself as one of the most prolific biographical writers in the United States. He is the author of Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House, 1911-1980, and a memoir of working with Andy Warhol in the 1970s and early 1980s, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up.

Layla S. Diba is an independent scholar, art advisor, and curator. She has been director and chief curator of the Negarestan Museum in Tehran (1975–79), art advisor for the Private Secretariat of Queen Farah Pahlavi, and Hagop Kevorkian Curator of Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA). While at the BMA, Diba curated and organized the first major international exhibition on 18th- and 19th-century Persian art and culture, Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch (1785–1925). In 2006, she was invited to develop programming and strategy for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum and subsequently continues to advise the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on cultural policy issues. Her current publications include Turkmen Silver: Jewelry and Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn Wolf Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011). Diba holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Diba is the cocurator of Asia Society's exhibition Iran Modern.

Nicky Nodjoumi was born in Kermanshah, Iran in 1942. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in art from Tehran University of Fine Arts before relocating to the United States in the late 1960s. Nodjoumi received his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from The City College of New York in 1974. The artist briefly returned to Tehran to join the faculty of Tehran University but returned to New York in the wake of the 1979 Revolution. Nodjoumi has exhibited internationally and his work is included in prominent collections including the British Museum, London; the Salsali Private Museum, Dubai; and the National Museum of Cuba. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn.

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Please note that the galleries will be open until 6:30 pm.

Exhibition catalogues will be available for purchase in the main lobby.

In conjunction with the exhibition Iran Modern, on view September 6, 2013 through January 5, 2014.

View all Iran Modern-related events