Artistic collaboration — meaning cooperation toward the creation of a single unified artwork — has deep roots in Iranian art. Traditional miniature paintings, for instance, were the product of collective labor divided among specialized craftsmen. With the rise of modernism and its emphasis on individualism, the structure of art production shifted; yet collective practices persisted...

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many galleries shifted their focus toward sales and other revenue-generating activities to maintain financial stability. As a result, they scaled back some of the services traditionally associated with the long-term professional development of artists. In response to these changing market conditions and the evolving needs of the art ecosystem, artist...

In the art market, auction formats play a crucial role in shaping competition and price formation. Unlike conventional auctions, where bids increase through open competition, sealed-bid auctions require participants to submit a single confidential offer without knowledge of competing bids. This shifts the focus from real-time bidding dynamics to independent valuation. Historically a...

The Artchart report on the Iranian art market in 1404 SH provides a comprehensive picture of the market’s trends and directions. It covers the performance of Iran’s art market over the past twenty years, the state of the market in years of crisis, the activity of auction houses, the world’s highest-selling cities, leading artists, high-priced works, and the galleries and art cities...

In the spring 2026 auctions, the Islamic and Middle Eastern art market showed signs of resilience, although this resilience was not evenly distributed across all segments. While classical Islamic art largely maintained its position, the Middle Eastern contemporary art segment came under growing structural pressure, driven by the combined effects of geopolitical tensions, intensifyin...

The 2026 Art Basel and UBS Report—prepared by Arts Economics—analyzes the global art market in 2025 across both the auction and dealer sectors, and offers projections for market trends in 2026. According to the report, the global art market returned to profitability following two consecutive years of contraction, recording a 4% increase in overall growth. Meanwhile, the online segme...

This article provides a brief overview of the Iranian art market’s performance since 2020, a sensitive period marked by successive social, political, and economic crises that have shaped the domestic art scene. The focus is on the statistics and results of Tehran Auction, the only publicly available official source, showing that the market’s lowest performance coincided with the cou...

Trench art refers to objects and handmade artifacts created during wartime, often using leftover materials such as bullets, shell casings, mud, wood, or even fruit pits. These works blur the boundaries between survival, memory, and artistic expression. Mary Walling Blackburn’s Wound, Whittle, and Peach examines these marginal forms through historical and theoretical perspectives, hi...

This text is a Persian translation of the article “On Art Activism” by Boris Groys, published in issue 56 of the journal e-flux in 2014. Groys examines art activism through the concept of aesthetization, critically rethinking the relationship between art, politics, and design. Situating his analysis within philosophical and historical debates that extend beyond modernity and narrati...