A Comparative Study of 6 Selected Splash Glaze Pottery Works of Khurasan from 8th to 11th Century AD with Ideas of Abstract Expressionism (with an Emphasis on Action Painting)

In this study, the "splashed glaze" pottery of the early Islamic period of Iran was selected by the purposive sampling method and was compared with the ideas of abstract expressionism and action painting. The main goal is to recognize the aesthetic features of Iranian art in comparison with the ideas of the new art. This paper utilizes the descriptive-analytical method with the comparative approach and answers these questions: 1) what are the common features of selected "splashed glaze potteries" associated with "abstract expressionistic and action painting's ideas"? 2) What are the causes of their similarity and to what extent? The results demonstrate that they are matched significantly, namely between 60% and 72%. Their most similarities are in the indicators of "transformation of work surface into an artistic event, not a place to represent visual elements", "the existence of a general control over the random process of coloring, and not a complete randomization of the final effect," and "lack of specific narrative". The writers believe that although there are about 1100 years between the time of creation of these potteries and the emergence of abstract expressionism, the main reasons of the similarity between these selected potteries with the ideas of abstract expressionism and action painting are the shared inspiration by artists of both eras (Chinese works of art), similar social and political conditions (despair and insecurity due to war) and identical aesthetic principles (tendency to abstraction).