Aesthetics of Bakhtiāri Gabbeh on the Basis of Ethnic Art Paradigm

When we look at and compare examples of hitherto known traditional arts, we come across many linguistic, expressive, and even formal differences. Giving the mere title of “traditional” to the works produced in the Islamic era and even earlier is due to the failure to consider and explain a high art period in the Persian art; a period to incorporate a number of such works and to exclude them from the historical period of traditional arts. Such an artistic period can be called “ethnic art” with regard to its particular features. Ethnic art is a major field of understanding the pure aesthetic considerations of Iranians. Ethnic art is a discourse that has been neglected in Iranian art criticism. This art remains unknown in all respects, especially in terms of language and expression, under the impact of traditional art. Given that one cannot fully recognize Iranian ethnic art here, we intend to attract the audiences’ attention to the understanding of such art as a whole by introducing one example and one medium. We chose gabbeh (long-wefted pileless carpet) for this purpose. Gabbeh is one of the most beautiful Iranian handicrafts in general and Bakhtiāri nomadic society in particular whose recognition of its aesthetic signs and symbols paves the way for the recognition of “Iranian ethnic art discourse”. Gabbeh is one of the most beautiful handicrafts in Bakhtiāri tribal society with many aesthetic dimensions and capabilities, including simplicity and ease of weaving. It also has many aesthetic and visual values in line with the tastes of modern urban man who still has room for artifacts in the interior of his architecture. Designs, colors, and other elements in artworks, especially in those of the Bakhtiāri people, in proportion to the materials available for the artist, pursue nothing but the joy of life and the color of happiness in the environment and therefore have no purpose but beauty. The beauty in this point of view is influenced by the nature, and the behavior of nature, not necessarily the physical appearance of it, blows the mind of artist. The role and design of ethnic handicrafts, especially gabbeh, is a clear example of pure reflections of artists who prefer and emphasize the linguistic and expressive essence of forms, shapes and colors over other historical-psychological analysis of the mind in the context of the artwork. From a methodological point of view, the author in the present essay has explored the components of aesthetics in an analogical way and has compared them to the extant samples for explaining the essential differences between traditional and ethnic art. Here the linguistic and expressive aspects have been considered, and the focus has been on understanding the generality of ethnic art. The author has actually offered a thematic example and eventually generalized the research components to the whole ethnic art. The research method is comparative and analytical-descriptive and its sources are collected mainly by field observations and interviews. The results of this particular experience are devoid of personal considerations, a fact which has always prevailed in some branches of arts, especially traditional art. Minimalism, abstraction based on pure aesthetic considerations, superiority of pure visual analysis in evaluating the composition, a primitive approach to the design and intelligent abstraction of ready elements of everyday life are the components that constitute the foundation of Persian ethnic art. Such features have essentially been manifested in Bakhtiāri gabbehs.