Caricature in Iran 4
 

The MulIa Nassruddin Weekly thought of different methods for the presentation of designs and articles on Iranian society and the social climate so that the pictures would be clear and satisfactory for the viewer. The desig­ners of this weekly used this visual language with the understanding they had of caricature attractiveness. Of course at that time because of the modernity of these types of designs among the people, the problem of picture making in a form which was realistic was considered by the desig­ners to some extent. But all things considered, we can say that this week­ly’s caricaturists never intended to reach realism.

If we can see some sort of shadow­ing in Rotor’s works, this is the expres­sion of his inner tendency to show his environment more exactly. But in Shilling’s works there seems to be a kind of simplicity and explicitness of statement in demonstration of events and social realities which later became the pat­tern for the Iranian caricaturists. Shel­ling shows no interest in light and shade, he uses simple lines. His men emerge on a white background with narrow black lines become differentiated from their environment by darker lines.

The relations the designers had with skillful writers and poets of the Mulla Nassruddin Weekly induced the reflec­tion of the nature of these relations in their works. They most often and in many cases prepared pictures based on writer’s articles or poets’ poems

This relation and dependence caused a special richness and attractiveness of designs and pictures

The publication of Mulla Nassruddin occurred in an era in which a special situation prevailed over the society. The Iranian political history was accompanied by great occurrences like the constitutional revolution. These events prompted the designers of this weekly to actually follow the political stances of a specific group in political conflicts, and express their political views with the language of an image which contained a local satire. They mocked the opposing groups and by this mean revealed their secrets and humiliated them. Because of this reve­aling character of the magazine, the blade of censorship cut the Mulla Nas­sruddin body several times.

“From the beginning, the publication of the MuIla Nassruddin Weekly attracted the attention of the Czars police and the opposition factions. Every issue of the weekly had to be checked by government agents before going to press and if it was not against the Czarist domestic and foreign policies it could be printed, otherwise printing was stopped and the office of the weekly was closed down. All delays in the publication of this weekly were clue to censorship and nothing else. But the policies of Mulla Nassrud­din regarding this censorship were clever. They used to print the weekly with blank spaces and this caption “because of reasons beyond our con­trol this part remains blank or this picture did not get printing permission.”

Between 1901 and 1911 these blank spaces could be seen regularly in the paper.’

The important characteristic of Mulla Nassruddin designers are their deep acquaintance with the environment, history and the people around them. They judged the events in the form of caricatures. They restated the realities in a satirical way. Conscious judgment was always there. Perhaps because Mulla Nassruddin was a weekly caricature was the only mean that had the ability to exactly record the events and realities. One of the most interesting designs of Mulla Nassrud­din was the scene of the conflict bet­ween Mohammad Ali Shah and Ahmad Shah.

In this design Ahmad Shah (who appeared as a child) shows his inten­tion of getting his kingdom’s rights by holding Mohammad Ali shah’s feet. In this design Rotor showed his presenting caricatural visage personalities of those days by caricatures of Mohammad Ali shah’s face (half faced) and Ahmad shah (complete face).

In addition to beauty, this design reflected the bitter realities of the tragic situation of the Iranian government at that time. Rotor made an image of these meanings and realltie3 with his smart and clever sense of humor.

The understanding and the application of Roter’s technical function in the light of facility limitations of that time, is expressive of this artist’s creativeness. Creation of unexpected moods in daily serious and routine subjects was considered as a routine technique among the designers of this weekly. In on’ Roter’s designs we are presented with the movement of a group of who are escorting the bride and groom according to the tradition of that time and which is still practiced today, he has designed the visages, movements and behaviors in a way that one cannnot see any illogical and unnatural feeling in them. It is here that the designer brings his unexpected elements into the scene with a delicate view on the subject; he has drawn the groom as an old man who is embracing his bride who appears as a baby girl.

(1)   Mohamad Pifoun, MulIa Nassrudin weekly Peyke enghalab p.83