Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s art forges a link between Western modernism and the rich visual traditions of Islamic art Light and movement, abstraction and geometry lie at the heart of the oeuvre of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (b. Qazvin, 1922–d. Tehran, 2019). From botanical drawings to mirror mosaics and three-dimensional assemblages, her body of work unfolds through a logic of repetition, reflection, and multiplicity. She was equally shaped by the artistic movements that emerged in postwar New York and in Tehran during the 1960s and ’70s, as by the traditions of Iranian visual culture, including Islamic art and architecture, and craft practices. Together, these elements laid the foundation of a visual idiom that is as personal as it is boundary-crossing. This publication offers a layered portrait of an artist whose practice bridges twentieth-century global modernisms and contemporary art. Across time, place, and political rupture, Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s work continues to unfold with remarkable formal clarity and inventive force.

Light and movement, abstraction and geometry lie at the heart of the oeuvre of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (b. Qazvin, 1922–d. Tehran, 2019). From botanical drawings to mirror mosaics and three-dimensional assemblages, her body of work unfolds through a logic of repetition, reflection, and multiplicity. She was equally shaped by the artistic movements that emerged in postwar New York and in Tehran during the 1960s and ’70s, as by the traditions of Iranian visual culture, including Islamic art and architecture, and craft practices. Together, these elements laid the foundation of a visual idiom that is as personal as it is boundary-crossing. This publication offers a layered portrait of an artist whose practice bridges twentieth-century global modernisms and contemporary art. Across time, place, and political rupture, Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s work continues to unfold with remarkable formal clarity and inventive force.