Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

The art of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian unites light, geometry, and abstraction, bridging Western modernism with the rich visual traditions of Islamic art. Light and movement, abstraction and geometry, permeate the art of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922–2019) – from delicate drawings with botanical motifs to seductive mirror mosaics and large-scale sculptures. In her art, the boundaries between Western modernism and aesthetic principles within Islamic visual art dissolve. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian lived and worked in a pendulum movement between Iran and the USA – two places that came to shape her creative work. In close connection with the avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s in New York, she was deeply influenced by both the intensity of abstract expressionism and the minimalism world of ideas. In Iran, she immersed herself in the rich cultural heritage of craft traditions and ornamental architecture. The catalgoue presents a survey of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s transboundary art and her significant role within 20th-century global modernism and its continuing reverberations in our time.