The 'contemporary' section of this wide-ranging gallery is a selection of thought-provoking photographic and illustrative social commentary in the rear halls. There's also an intriguing modern section, including a grasping hand sculpture (credited somewhat questionably to August Rodin), two Béla Kádár watercolours and a small Kandinsky landscape. Some of the Iranian works are more compelling, notably Mohammad Javadipour's semi-cubist rural scene and Rajbali's classic Persian-style rendering of Shah Nematollah Vali.
One section is devoted to expressive portraits and realistic plaster statues by local artist Sayyed Ali Akbar Sanati (1916–2006) – who spent most of his childhood in the orphanage that formerly occupied the gallery's attractive Qajar-era courtyard buildings.
