‘SelectLanguage | ¥ “Trenaleter diedlaimer Iranian Studies original articles Fictive Layering and Inversion in the Paintings of Ali-Akbar Sadeghi bor: 10.1080/0021¢862.2015.1062251, ds Feroutan Publishing models and article dates explained ubiebed onines 06 Oct 2035, Abstract Inlran surrealism is spoken of by artists and crtics as aliving element in art, long after its popularity In Europe and North America has wened. This arucle explores key features of the work of one of the most prolific contemporary Iranian artists, Allkbar Sadeghi. While ‘Sadeghi says that he thinks of himself as a “surrealist,” his work is distinguished from many self-professed surrealists in Ian: whereas the latter are concerned with representing metaphysical even mystical, meanings, Sadeghi cess his art as a kind of, intellectual exercise, presenting a dramatic theater in which the viewer engages in epistemoiogical interrogation. Though Sadeghi's paintings are full of apparent references, to surrealist themes and tropes from the past, here it fsergued that his work is not 30 much a storehouse of surrealist content as a series of puzzles fer the viewer to solve. BD ruttexturm Por