STOCKHOLM.- Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922–2019) lived and worked in Tehran and New York at different times – two cities that came to shape her artistic career in different ways. Her art is characterised by geometric abstraction, reflective materials and the forms of the vegetable kingdom. All with influences from Iran’s rich visual culture and deep historical roots as well as post-war modernist movements. The exhibition presents the artist’s most famous works – the kaleidoscopic mirror mosaics – but also shows her breadth, including calligraphic drawings and collages.

Today, Shahroudy Farmanfarmaianis regarded as one of Iran’s most influential artists and holds an established place in global modernism and contemporary art history.

This is the first solo exhibition of her work in the Nordic countries. The exhibition is organised by Moderna Museet, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and Kunstmuseum Den Haag. From Moderna Museet, it will go on tour to Madrid and The Hague.

“Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s oeuvre makes visible connections and exchanges that have long fallen outside dominant narratives of modern art history. At the same time, her way of moving between materials, knowledge traditions and places resonates with concerns that are central to contemporary art today”, the exhibition’s curator Asrin Haidari says.

Nearly One Hundred Works

The exhibitionincludes nearly 100 artworks, from the 1970s to works created by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian in the 2010s. A key work that the audience encounters in the exhibition is Third Family (2011) – a series of mirror reliefs in which geometric shapes develop through repetition.





The mirror works are exhibited side by side with drawings, collages, textile works and the personal Heartache Boxes, a kind of memory boxes. The exhibition shows how the artist allows geometric structure and mathematical precision to coexist with intuition and chance. Forms and ideas wander between materials and techniques, returning, changing and merging into new constellations.
Opportunities and Limitations

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s life and work were shaped by recurring departures and returns but also by exceptional opportunities. She was born in 1922 in Qazvin, Iran, into a wealthy and influential family. This gave her access to education, travel and contacts, while at the same time she faced a number of obstacles and limitations, both as a woman and as an Iranian artist. Political upheavals in Iran and the changing attitudes of the outside world towards the country had significant consequences for her opportunities to work and gain recognition as an artist.
Tehran–New York, return

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian studied art at the University of Tehran before continuing her studies in New York in 1945. There she moved in the city’s avant-garde environments and established herself as a designer and illustrator. She meets Joan Mitchell, Robert Morris and Andy Warhol, among others, before their big breakthrough.

With impressions from the New York art scene and a degree in her bag, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian returned to Tehran in 1957, which was developing into a dynamic art metropolis. She became part of Iran’s growing art scene and already in 1958, she participated in both the first Tehran Biennial and the Venice Biennial. At the same time, she deepened her interest in Iran’s historical visual and craft traditions.

During her travels through Iran, she visited historic buildings, mosques and shrines, and studied the craft techniques and patterns she encountered there. Particularly significant was the visit to the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz in 1966. The interiors, where walls and arches are covered in hand-cut geometric mirror pieces, made a deep impression and the experience became central to her continued work.
Exile and return, and international breakthrough

When the revolution broke out in 1979, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was in New York and could not return to Iran.

She lived in exile in New York for about 25 years. There, the conditions for her work were more constrained, and she turned to collages, drawings and smaller objects. Many of the ideas and forms she developed during this period would reappear in other materials much later.

In the early 2000s, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian returned permanently to Tehran and established her own studio. She once again gains access to materials, techniques and specialised craftsmanship, not least in the field of mirror mosaic. It becomes the prelude of one of the most productive periods in her artistic career. Well into her nineties, she continued to push the possibilities of geometry, materials and mirrors.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian had her big international breakthrough with a retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2015. Two years later, she donated 51 works from her private collection to the newly opened Monir Museum in Tehran, the first museum in Iran dedicated to an individual female artist.

Exhibition Catalogue

For the exhibition, Moderna Museet is publishing a richly illustrated catalogue in collaboration with the Belgian publisher Hannibal Books, as well as with Moderna Museet’s partners Museo Reina Sofía and Kunstmuseum Den Haag.

The exhibition catalogue will be published in four language editions (Swedish, English, Spanish and Dutch) and comprises 226 pages with texts by Nairy Baghramian, Sussan Babaie, Reza Daftarian, Asrin Haidari, Yasmijn Jarram, Azar Mahmoudian and Sam Samiee.