Combining Tradition and Modernism in Contemporary Afghan Women Painting

Abstract

Afghan contemporary women painters relying on the foundations of modernism and the legacy of visual tradition have found a great presence in contemporary art in this country. In this regard, these painters have created artworks in political and social contexts, women's issues, portraiture, inanimate nature, and figures. The question is how Afghan contemporary women's painters have used the rich country's assets in their contemporary painting? And what are their attitudes to this old treasure? This paper provides results using a descriptive-analytical method and using the library and archive resources. First, not only the attitude towards the past and the visual capital of painting, both for men and Afghan contemporary women's painters, are not reactionary, but it is also wealth for their contemporary works; it has been promoted visually. It was also found that the functions of painting in the works of these female painters can be seen in the application of elements such as colour (coordination), golden colour, divergence or use frame failure by plant images, the combination of plant designs, geometric, illumination or divination, and Calligraphy with painting, as well as the combination of naturalist painting with plant designs, as well as combining elements such as Simorgh, Islamic architectural designs, or flowers and chicken with oil paintings. It was also found that two types of socio-political approaches to expressing women's concerns and issues and paying attention to painting to revitalize the heritage of this land have attracted the most attention of the Afghan contemporary women painters.