Quarto. (14)ff., loose. The introductory leaf
provides the title in Farsi and then, in Farsi, French, and German, attributes
the work to "Jacques, an Armenian revolutionary printer," whose
designs "illustrate the fascist regime now in Iran." The subsequent
images are all signed "J. K. 76." Among the Armenian artists who have
left a public record, the most plausible candidate is Jacques Karamanoukian
(1940-2002), whose chief style merged outsider art and surrealism, and whose
expressive brushstrokes here seem to echo his later, more abstract work. The
political and social sensibilities which compelled Karamanoukian likewise suit
the agenda of the present portfolio. Each illustration presents a harrowing
image of the fascist conditions under the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran in
the years just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Red text, in Farsi,
surrounds the main figures in black. Many of the images show the victims of the
state; many others explicitly link greed for money and oil to the corrupt
government, with pipelines and derricks looming in various backgrounds. The
United States' involvement is also criticized in the several instances of the
dollar sign and one illustration of a hand identified as "USA"
holding up a "king" parrot who says whatever the hand commands. Sheets
rubbed at corners, title sheet with crease to upper left corner and staining
along left margin, else near fine. With original folder, which is unmarked save
for a rubber stamp of "4.00." Unrecorded.