خوانش نشانه‌شناختی تصویر پیکر شهید در منتخبی از آثار نقاشان معاصر ایران (1360-1400)

Mythologizing in art and literature is the use of the expressive capabilities of a specific medium in order to create or strengthen a specific character or idea. This process can usually transform a real issue into something bigger, more important and inspiring that affects society and culture. In the contemporary world, the traditional notions of the concept of heroism have been challenged and the methods of creating myths have been criticized through various media. When a person becomes a role model for the lives of others, he/she has moved to the realm of becoming a legend. A hero is a person who accepts the limitations, dangers and problems and enters the field of action, because if the body is perishable, but her/his action is immortal.
Martyrdom is one of the sublime concepts of Iranian-Islamic culture, which has long been considered in the visual arts of Iran. In the Islamic religion, there is a significant conceptual link between heroism and martyrdom. In Islamic Attitude, a martyr is someone who goes to war for the sake of the country and people and the satisfaction of God and is killed in this way. Therefore, the culture of martyrdom and raising martyrs has become one of the high values of Iran's political and social system. The depiction of martyrs and martyrdom is one of the points of interest of contemporary Iranian painters; Artists try to express their feelings and ideology and mythologize this concept through the depiction of martyrs. Therefore, considering the important effects myths in the culture and societies, the aim of the current research is to explain how the Iranian contemporary painters mythologized the image of a martyr and the concept of martyrdom in their painting. In order to achieve the goal of the research, we try to answer these questions: Which capabilities of painting have the contemporary Iranian painters used to mythologize the image of martyrdom? And, with what characteristics are martyrs and martyrdom represented in contemporary Iranian paintings?
This research is a qualitative study that is carried out using a descriptive-analytical method. Semiotics has been used in the analysis of research samples. For data collecting documentary and field methods are used. The statistical population of the research includes those paintings that were executed between 1360 and 1400 with the subject of martyrdom and martyrdom and in figurative style. In this article, 9 works are presented and analyzed as selected examples; The criterion for selecting the samples was the representation of the moment of martyrdom and the body of the martyr in the paintings.
The depiction of martyrs and martyrdom, in contemporary Iranian painting, is not merely the representation of a real event, but goes beyond reality and turns to mythologizing. As a result, we can mention some of the methods of contemporary Iranian painters in mythologizing martyrdom and representing the martyr as a hero, which were obtained based on the study of statistical society and research samples:
1. Realist approach in imaging: images that are more similar to objective reality are always more believable and will have more audience. In this way, the painters, using the realistic method, make the existential dimensions of martyrdom and the character of the martyr, which cannot be seen, visible to the audience and therefore believable.
2. The use of symbolic expression: the use of familiar metaphors and symbols for the audience's society allows the artist to give more meaning to the image and link it to the narratives that exist in the audience's mind.
3. Using the rules of visual communication: In this approach, the artist emphasizes the hero's place from a formal aesthetic point of view by using visual principles and arrangements. In most research samples, the body of the martyr is placed in the center of the image or in the turning points (based on the golden divisions) and at the top of the frame.
Finally, it is important to mention that the image of a martyr as a hero in contemporary Iranian painting is not comparable to the images of mythological heroes; Here, it is not the strength and beauty of the body that differentiates the hero from others, but the weakness of the hero's body and the absence of the body, which has made her/him a permanent and ever-present concept.