The Impact of Social Structure on Tendency towards New Styles (Iranian Painting during 1961 - 1971), With an Emphasis on Robert Wuthnow's Viewpoint

This research aims to examine, the sociological factors affecting the new trends in Iranian painting art during 1961-1971s with the emphasis on Robert Wuthnow's viewpont. The theoretical framework used is based on the theoretical model of discursive discourse version consisting of three categories of concepts. The first set of concepts that Wuthnow poses to explain discursive changes include "environmental conditions", "context and institutional context" and "action chains." In Wuthnow's view, the concept of "environmental conditions" includes "the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions of each of the periods of cultural change." The other concept that Wuthnow emphasizes in his plot is the concept of "textures or institutional contexts." "Tissues or institutional contexts" are the most immediate conditions and production environments of the ideology in which resources are built and formulated.
The institutional contexts are organizational situations and conditions in which cultural movements are produced and distributed. Schools and universities, colleges and study circles, scientific academies, newspapers, government officials and political parties are among the institutional contexts.
The concept of "action chains" is the third concept that Wuthnow presents. "Action chains" occur within the context or institutional context. In the Wuthnow model, the concept of "action chains" refers to the behavior of producers and consumers of culture and the decisions of supporters of a cultural movement, censorship agents, political leaders, and others who influence the behavior of the producers of culture and audience.
The second category includes "production", "selection" and "institutionalization". Wuthnow believes that by differentiating the analysis between the three processes of productions, selection, and institutionalization, we can more accurately show how social conditions affect cultural products. The "social horizon," "discursive realms," and "symbolic action," are the third of the concepts that Wesno argued for explaining discursive changes. These two conceptual categories link the general concepts of "social structure" and "art" with one another, and to a degree determine the mechanism of this relationship – influencing and influenceability. Wuthnow explains the mechanism of problem linkage with three concepts of social horizons, discourse domains and symbolic actions. In his opinion, cultural-artistic products are produced in time and place, and these two coordinates impose restrictions on the social horizon.
The research hypothesis is that the discursive changes and social structure of the 1950's in Iran caused feminine tendencies in the content of the artists’ works and led to the emergence of new styles in painting. This study intends to investigate how the social structure has an impact on the new and diverse styles of painting in this era.
This research, taking explanatory approach, historical interpretation method, and using historical data through the compilation of library materials, explains the ways, methods, and mechanisms through which these social conditions, has made possible the innovation and artistic tendency in this time span.
The results of the research indicated that artistic movements are always related to their social environment. Social, political, and economic resources are driving forces for the production of culture, thought and art. In this research, through studying the macro-social units within the time spans considered as resources of mobilization for the creation of art, the causes of this effect has been elaborated upon and as an example of the production of culture and art, the emergence of various tendencies in painting styles of Iran in the 60s and 70s has been discussed.
The claims and arguments which the study has tried to validate or invalidate its claims and arguments through examining the experimental data, was that the process of modernization and reform helped eliminate institutional barriers to artistic change in three ways:
1-      Development of the economy, increase in the number of the educated middle class, expansion of urbanization, promotion of urban lifestyle eliminates the institutional barriers against the production of culture and art, and provides a suitable social atmosphere for the development of art.
2-      Government policies provide the appropriate context for the expansion of the range of dialogues and cultural interactions. In this ambience, artists can create their novel artwork.
3-      The requirements of the process of development and modernization, in particular the need to satisfy the European countries to invest in Iran, paying serious attention to modernization and the so-called modernization as well as and the opening up of the cultural ambience of Iran resulted in a change in cultural policies which provided an opportunity for the expression of new thoughts and ideas in the field of art.
Cultural outcomes, the requirements of the process of modernization such as the development of education, the expansion of the press, mass media and cultural movements were among the most important factors in shaping the cultural aspects of the society and providing the necessary cultural resources for the production of culture and art. Undoubtedly, the process of social change provided the necessary ground for the emergence of painting movements. However, the way in which the painters worked for the creation of works has its own logic.
Therefore, it can be claimed that the nature of the themes reflected in the works of art, the characterization of the artwork and the patterns of dialogue presented therein follow the nature of the discourse text in which the artwork is produced.