Crude Visions: Exploring Oil’s Aesthetic Legacy in Iranian Contemporary Art

This study explores the profound impact of oil’s aesthetic legacy on contemporary Iranian art, offering a multidisciplinary examination that intersects economy, society, and culture. It highlights how Iranian artists, including painters, filmmakers, sculptors, and designers, navigate and reflect upon oil’s dual role as a material resource and a metaphorical entity. The study talks about how the way oil is extracted and the infrastructure that supports it, along with its social and political effects, affects how people talk about art, how artists get money, and how artists express themselves in Iran. The study draws upon interviews with six contemporary artists (Hamze Farhadi, Anahita Rezvani-Rad, Amin Roshan, Sona Safaei-Sooreh, Sanaz Sohrabi, and Soheila Sokhanvari), who shared their critical reflections and theoretical frameworks on oil aesthetics. The text makes the case that oil in Iran has an aesthetic impact beyond its economic value. It is seen as a geopolitical tool and a social force that significantly impacts how people see the landscape. It addresses the ethical and environmental dilemmas faced by the art world due to its reliance on the oil industry’s support since the first discoveries of 1908 led to the establishment of industrial cities, which became relevant venues for presenting artworks. In the interplay between industry and arts, four main lines of reasoning have emerged: the introduction of new materiality based on oil infrastructure and the use of oil as an artist’s tool; the inherent contradiction of aestheticization between the celebration of wealth and the reparation of environmental emergencies; the criticism against external influences in domestic politics and the inattention to local communities; and the formation of visual ideologies that employ oil for partisan messages. Ultimately, the ongoing dialogue between art and oil in Iran enriches our understanding of contemporary artistic practices and invites a broader reflection on the future of cultural expression in the shadow of industrial and ecological change.