Professor Talinn Grigor explores the ruins of Persepolis in the aftermath of its excavation by Ernst Herzfeld in a public lecture entitled “Persepolis After Lindon Smith: The Modernist Afterlife of the Ruins.” As an accurate architectural prototype as well as a utopian-nationalist trope, the image of Persepolis circulated in and out of artistic and sociopolitical life both in Iran and abroad, including the artistic renderings by Joseph Lindon Smith in the 1930s.

This lecture for The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is linked part of the Institute’s special exhibition “Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings” – on display from January 27 to August 28, 2022 — and will be presented online lecture Tuesday, April 26 from 3-4 pm (PDT)

Watch this event on youTube here.