Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
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Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian ( fa, منیر شاهرودی فرمانفرمائیان; 16 December 1922 – 20 April 2019) was an Iranian artist and a collector of traditional folk art. She is noted for having been one of the most prominent Iranian artists of the contemporary period, and she was the first artist to achieve an artistic practice that weds the geometric patterns and cut-glass
mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
techniques ( Āina-kāri) of her Iranian heritage with the rhythms of modern Western geometric abstraction. In 2017, the Monir Museum in Tehran, Iran was opened in her honor.


Early life and education

Shahroudy was born on December 18, 1922, to educated parents in the religious town of
Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...
in north-western Iran. Farmanfarmaian acquired artistic skills early on in childhood, receiving drawing lessons from a tutor and studying postcard depictions of western art. After studying at the
University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
at the Faculty of Fine Art in 1944, she then moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
via steamboat, when World War II derailed her plans to study art in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. In New York, she studied at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, at Parsons School of Design, where she majored in fashion illustration, and at the
Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...
.


Career

As a fashion illustrator, she held various freelance jobs, working with magazines such as '' Glamour'' before being hired by the
Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, New York, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the par ...
department store, where she made the acquaintance of a young
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
. Additionally, she learned more about art through her trips to museums and through her exposure to the 8th Street Club and New York's avant-garde art scene, becoming friends with artists and contemporaries
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast ...
,
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
,
Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...
, Barnett Newman, and
Joan Mitchell Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...
.


First return to Iran

In early 1957, Farmanfarmaian moved back to Iran. Inspired by the resident culture, she discovered "a fascination with tribal and folk artistic tradition" of her country's history, which "led her to rethink the past and conceive a new path for her art." In the following years, she would further develop her Persian inspiration by crafting mirror mosaics and abstract monotypes. Meanwhile her work was featured at the Iran Pavilion in the 1958
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, and holding a number of exhibitions in places such as
Tehran University The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
(1963), the Iran-America Society (1973), and the Jacques Kaplan/Mario Ravagnan Gallery (1974).


Exile and return to Iran

In 1979, Farmanfarmaian and her second husband, Abol-Bashar, traveled to New York to visit family. Around the same time, the Islamic Revolution began, and so the Farmanfarmaians found themselves exiled from Iran, an exile that would last for over twenty years. Farmanfarmaian attempted to reconcile her mirror mosaics with the limited resources offered in America, but such lacking materials and comparatively inexperienced workers restricted her work. In the meantime, she placed larger emphasis on other aspects of her art, such as commissions, textile designs, and drawing.


Third return to Iran and death

In 1992, Farmanfarmaian returned to Iran and later, in Tehran in 2004, she reaffirmed her place among Iran's art community, gathering both former and new employees to help create her mosaics. She continued to live and work in Tehran until her death. On 20 April 2019 Farmanfarmaian died at her home at the age of 96.


Artwork

Aside from her mirror work (a technique known as Āina-kāri), Farmanfarmaian is additionally known for her paintings, drawings, textile designs, and monotypes.


Mirror mosaics

Around the 1970s, Farmanfarmaian visited the
Shah Cheragh Shāh Chérāgh ( fa, شاه چراغ) or Shahcheragh Shrine is the tomb of Ahmed bin Musa ( Imam Reza's brother) in the center of Shiraz. It is the third most important shrine in Shia Islam in Iran, after the Imam Reza shrine and Fatima Mas ...
mosque in
Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...
, Iran. With the shrine's "high-domed hall ... covered in tiny square, triangular, and hexagonal mirrors," similar to many other ancient Iranian mosques, this event acted as a turning point in Farmanfarmaian's artistic journey, leading to her interest in mirror mosaic artwork. In her memoir, Farmanfarmaian described the experience as transformative:
"The very space seemed on fire, the lamps blazing in hundreds of thousands of reflection ... It was a universe unto itself, architecture transformed into performance, all movement and fluid light, all solids fractured and dissolved in brilliance in space, in prayer. I was overwhelmed."
Aided by the Iranian craftsman, Hajji Ostad Mohammad Navid, she created a number of mosaics and exhibition pieces by cutting mirrors and glass paintings into a multitude of shapes, which she would later reform into constructions which evoked aspects of
Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...
and Islamic culture. Āina-kāri is the traditional art of cutting mirrors into small pieces and slivers, placing them in decorative shapes over plaster. This form of Iranian reverse glass and mirror mosaics is a craft traditionally passed on from father to son. Farmanfarmaian, however, was the first contemporary artist to reinvent the traditional medium in a contemporary way. By striving to mix Iranian influences and the tradition of mirror artwork with artistic practices outside of strictly Iranian culture, "offering a new way of looking at ancient aesthetic elements of this land using tools that are not limited to a particular geography," Farmanfarmaian was able to express a cyclical conception of spirituality, space, and balance in her mosaics.


Personal life

Farmanfarmaian married Iranian artist Manoucher Yektai in 1950. They divorced in 1953, and in 1957, she returned to Tehran to marry lawyer Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian. In 1991, Abolbashar died of
leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
. She has two daughters, Nima and Zahra. While living in Iran, Farmanfarmaian was also an avid collector. She sought out paintings behind glass, traditional tribal jewelry and potteries, and amassed one of the greatest collections of "coffee-house paintings" in the country—commissioned paintings by folk artists as coffee-house, story-telling murals. The vast majority of her works and her collections of folk art were confiscated, sold or destroyed.


Exhibitions

Farmanfarmaian's work has been publicly exhibited in museums, including: Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2006 & 2009), Niyavaran Cultural Centre, Tehran (2007) , Leighton House Museum (2008),Beirut Exhibition Centre (2011), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
,
Grand Rapids Art Museum The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is an art museum located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, with collections ranging from Renaissance to Modern Art and special collections on 19th and 20th-century European and American art. Its holdings ...
, Haus der Kunst, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA),
Zentrum Paul Klee The Zentrum Paul Klee is a museum dedicated to the artist Paul Klee, located in Bern, Switzerland and designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings includ ...
,
Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Uni ...
Museum and more. Her work has been shown in private galleries including, Rose Issa Projects, London; The Third Line, Dubai; New York;
Grey Art Gallery The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...
,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
; Galerie Denise Rene, Paris and New York; Lower Belvedere, Vienna; and Ota Fine Art, Tokyo. Farmanfarmaian participated in the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010); the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2009); and the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
(1958, 1966 and 2009). In 1958 she received the Venice Biennale, Iranian Pavilion (gold medal). Suzanne Cotter curated Farmanfarmaian's work for her first large museum retrospective titled '''Infinite Possibility: Mirror Works and Drawings which was on display at the Serralves Museum (also known as Fundação de Serralves) in Porto, Portugal (2014-2015), and then the exhibition travelled to the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
in New York City (2015). This was her first large US museum exhibition.


Commissioned installations

Major commissioned installations include work for the
Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...
(2009), the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
(2006), the Dag Hammerskjold building, New York (1981) and the Niyavaran Cultural Center (1977–78), as well as acquisitions by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, The
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, ( Persian: موزه هنرهای معاصر تهران), also known as TMoCA, is among the largest art museums in Tehran and Iran. It has collections of more than 3,000 items that include 19th and 20th centur ...
, and the
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo The is a contemporary art museum in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. The museum is located in Kiba Park. It was opened in 1995. Collections *''Marilyn Monroe'' by Andy Warhol (1967) *'' Girl with Hair Ribbon'' by Roy Lichtenstein (1965) *''Honey-pop'' by ...
.


Collections

Farmanfarmaian's work is included in multiple public art collections worldwide, including: Victoria & Albert Museum; The British Museum; the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...
, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
,
Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...
, and others. In December 2017, the Monir Museum opened in Negarestan Park Gardens in Tehran, Iran, and is dedicated to showcasing Farmanfarmaian's works. With a collection of 51 works donated by the artist, the Monir Museum collection is managed by the
University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
.


In popular culture

Farmanfarmaian was named as one of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's "100 Women" of 2015.


Bibliography

The first monograph on ''Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Mirror Mosaics'', was edited by Rose Issa, and published by Nazar, Tehran 2006; ''Heartaches,'' edited by Rose Issa, Nazar publishing, Tehran (2007). Farmanfarmaian's memoir is titled ''A Mirror Garden: A Memoir'' was co-authored by Zara Houshmand (Knopf, 2007). ;; Her work is documented in ''Iranian Contemporary Art,'' Barbican Art Centre, Booth Clibborn, 2001; ''Zendegi, 11 Iranian'' ''Contemporary Artists'', Beirut Exhibition Centre, 2011 the book, ''Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Cosmic Geometry'' (Damiani Editore & The Third Line, 2011), which features in-depth interview by
Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...
, and critical essays by Nader Ardalan, Media Farzin and Eleanor Sims, tributes by Farmanfarmaian's friends
Etel Adnan Etel Adnan ( ar, إيتيل عدنان; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" ...
,
Siah Armajani Siavash "Siah" Armajani ( fa, سیاوش ارمجانی; 10 July 1939 – 27 August 2020) was an Iranian-born American sculptor and architect known for his public art. Family and education Siavash Armajani was born into a wealthy, educated fam ...
, caraballo-farman, Golnaz Fathi, Hadi Hazavei, Susan Hefuna, Aziz Isham, Rose Issa, Faryar Javaherian,
Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...
,
Shirin Neshat Shirin Neshat ( fa, شیرین نشاط; born March 26, 1957 in Qazvin) is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and th ...
, Donna Stein and
Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
. She is referenced in an excerpt from ''The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture'' by Nader Ardalan and
Laleh Bakhtiar Laleh Mehree Bakhtiar (born Mary Nell Bakhtiar; July 29, 1938 – October 18, 2020) was an Iranian-American Islamic and Sufi scholar, author, translator, and clinical psychologist. Bakhtiar was the first American woman to translate the Quran in ...
(1973), and an annotated timeline of Farmanfarmaian's life by Negar Azimi. ''Women in Abstraction,'' Centre Pompidou, (2021).


Film

The film ''Monir'' (2014) directed by
Bahman Kiarostami Bahman Kiarostami ( fa, بهمن کیارستمی; born 11 August 1978, in Tehran) is an Iranian film director, cinematographer, film editor and film producer. He is the son of the late critically acclaimed Abbas Kiarostami. The main theme in Kia ...
, is a documentary about Farmanfarmaian's life and work.


References


External links


''ArtForum'' magazine interview with Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Interview
from 2010 with ArtAsiaPacific at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
* * Mohammed Afkhami, Sussan Babaie, Venetia Porter, Natasha Morris. "Honar: The Afkhami Collection of Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art." Phaidon Press, 2017. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmanfarmaian, Monir Shahroudy 1922 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Iranian women artists 21st-century Iranian women artists 20th-century art collectors 21st-century art collectors People from Qazvin Iranian contemporary artists Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian women painters Parsons School of Design alumni University of Tehran alumni Cornell University alumni Mosaic artists Mathematical artists BBC 100 Women Iranian art collectors Farmanfarmaian family