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Lot Essay
The present work is a pre-revolution mirror mosaic and reverse glass painting by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, exemplifying her mastery of traditional Persian craft fused with a modern sensibility. The work’s kaleidoscopic quality showcases a delicate interplay of light, reflection, and colour. Mirror fragments arranged in intricate geometric patterns refract light in multiple directions, creating a dazzling visual rhythm that shifts with the viewer’s movement. The effect recalls Farmanfarmaian’s formative visit to the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz in 1966. In A Mirror Garden: A Memoir (2007) the artist’s described this experience of being surrounded by shimmering mirrored surfaces as standing “inside a many-faceted diamond,”— a moment that profoundly influenced her artistic practice. Beneath the mirrored surface, vivid pigments in reverse glass painting introduce depth, with the vibrant red hexagons interacting with light to create an ever-changing architectural presence. The overall result is a luminous spatial composition that is at once meditative and dynamic.
This 1976 composition holds particular historical and artistic significance. As a rare example of Farmanfarmaian’s pre-revolutionary output, it reflects her foundational engagement with Islamic geometry and traditional Persian craft prior to her long period of exile following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The work draws on the centuries-old techniques of ayeneh-kari (mirror mosaic) and verre églomisé (reverse glass painting), both historically used in the decoration of shrines, mosques and palaces. Farmanfarmaian brought these practices into the language of modern art, exploring the modular systems and spatial harmonies of Islamic geometry through a contemporary lens. Her unique fusion of craft and abstraction anticipated later global conversations around the intersection of cultural heritage and modernism, situating her at the forefront of modernism in the Middle East.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1922 and studied at the University of Tehran before moving to New York in the 1940s, where she attended Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. During her time in New York, she was closely connected with figures of the Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art movements, including Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, whose approaches to form and repetition would later influence her own practice. Returning to Iran in the 1950s, she began her life-long investigation into Islamic architecture, geometry, and ornamentation. The 1979 revolution marked a major rupture, forcing her into exile for over two decades. In the 2000s, she re-established her studio in Tehran and experienced a renaissance in recognition. Her work has been widely exhibited, including in the landmark Epic Iran exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2021. In 2015, she became the first Iranian artist to receive a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Today, her works reside in major institutional collections including Tate Modern, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
This 1976 composition holds particular historical and artistic significance. As a rare example of Farmanfarmaian’s pre-revolutionary output, it reflects her foundational engagement with Islamic geometry and traditional Persian craft prior to her long period of exile following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The work draws on the centuries-old techniques of ayeneh-kari (mirror mosaic) and verre églomisé (reverse glass painting), both historically used in the decoration of shrines, mosques and palaces. Farmanfarmaian brought these practices into the language of modern art, exploring the modular systems and spatial harmonies of Islamic geometry through a contemporary lens. Her unique fusion of craft and abstraction anticipated later global conversations around the intersection of cultural heritage and modernism, situating her at the forefront of modernism in the Middle East.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1922 and studied at the University of Tehran before moving to New York in the 1940s, where she attended Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. During her time in New York, she was closely connected with figures of the Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art movements, including Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, whose approaches to form and repetition would later influence her own practice. Returning to Iran in the 1950s, she began her life-long investigation into Islamic architecture, geometry, and ornamentation. The 1979 revolution marked a major rupture, forcing her into exile for over two decades. In the 2000s, she re-established her studio in Tehran and experienced a renaissance in recognition. Her work has been widely exhibited, including in the landmark Epic Iran exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2021. In 2015, she became the first Iranian artist to receive a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Today, her works reside in major institutional collections including Tate Modern, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.