Analyses of non-Western modern and contemporary art that are based purely on Euro-American interpretative models often fail to reflect the discursive contexts of artistic production, or their cultural implications, or their incorporation into local historical narratives. This has created unbal-anced historiographical maps and art historical sources that inevitably consign non-Western art to the periphery. This book comes from this very problem. Having worked on the subject of modern and contemporary art of Iran over the past decades, I have come to understand that Euro-American paradigms cannot be uncritically applied to the study of art of Iran on the assumption that these discourses enjoy universal validity. However, to arrive at theories, models, analysis and critiques with real instructive and predictive power, some of the methodology of historiography and art theory has to be applied in the study of the subject. I have therefore attempted in this book to show why it is important to challenge the authority of a single art historical discourse and model and the reproduction of different subjectivities in particular narratives. What I have aimed here is to establish a way that art historical and temporal perception can be defined in the context of Iran. While I have adapted some of the so-called ‘global’ art historical paradigms such as critical theory and methodological models, much of the content of this book is based on primary sources including those written in Persian, my own observations and analysis offered in interviews with artists, curators, art critics and cultural activists. Teaching theory and history of art of Iran and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) in universities both in the UK and Iran has given me the chance to rehearse many of the arguments and to articulate new ideas found within the subject in conversation and interaction with students and colleagues both in the fields of contemporary art history and theory as well as art and material culture of the Islamic world. My close involvement in the art scene of contemporary Iran over the past few decades has also provided a great opportunity to hear the voices of insiders, the prevailing concerns within the art society and culture in Iran and how they have been reflected by artists through their artistic strategies. All these constructed the basis of a set of lenses by which this book's material is examined.