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Lot Essay
A monumental jar emerges from the picture plane, its vast, curved form rendered in clay greens and yellows and animated by a richly textured surface. Farsi lettering traces the vessel’s edge, introducing a further layer of visual and cultural resonance. At considerable scale, the familiar form takes on an almost immersive presence, its dimensionality seeming to extend beyond the limits of the canvas. Yet despite its imposing proportions, the jar retains the simplicity of an ancient utilitarian object, establishing a compelling tension between monumentality and familiarity.
The work belongs to Moshiri’s important series of jar paintings, through which he explored the challenge of translating the curved, three-dimensional presence of an ancient vessel onto a two-dimensional surface. His interest in these objects was also deeply personal. With an archaeologist wife, Moshiri once collected old vessels until the police, suspecting that one of the jars had been stolen, intervened. He subsequently abandoned collecting and instead began to paint them. The carefully constructed surface recalls the unworked clay of ancient Iran, achieved through a process of layering and scrubbing the paint, folding the canvas, leaving it exposed to the elements, and applying glue. The resulting texture gives the vessel the appearance of an excavated object, while simultaneously revealing the physical intervention of the artist.
This deliberate engagement with antiquity can be understood as part of Moshiri’s search for, and rediscovery of, a lost Iranian identity following his return home from the United States. The Farsi lettering that appears throughout his jar paintings often draws on the language of everyday life—calls from street vendors, love letters and song lyrics. Yet for many Iranians, these familiar expressions carry a more poignant undertone. Following the 1979 Revolution, such language could also convey a sense of loss, connecting the personal with a broader experience of cultural dislocation. In contrast to the brighter colours that characterise many of Moshiri’s later works, including those aligning more overtly with the visual language of Pop Art, the present work is distinguished by its restrained palette. Its natural tones recall the deserts of Iran and the adobe dwellings of its villages, further grounding the work in memories of the artist’s recent past. Through its monumental scale, tactile surface and evocation of antiquity, the familiar domestic vessel becomes a meditation on memory, place and the elusive traces of Iranian history.
Farhad Moshiri stands among the most distinctive figures of post-revolutionary Iranian contemporary art. Born in Shiraz in 1963, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in 1984, before returning to Tehran in 1991. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, video and embroidery, Moshiri developed an eclectic practice that brought together Persian history and visual culture with popular imagery and the language of Western consumerism. A recurring motif in his work was the antique Iranian vessel, which became a vehicle for his exploration of archaeology, memory and cultural identity. His wider practice was equally experimental in its use of materials, incorporating Swarovski crystals, sequins, embroidery and cake-icing dispensers, often combining decorative excess with an ironic sensibility.
Moshiri’s work has been exhibited internationally, in 2017–18, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh presented his first solo museum exhibition and mid-career survey. His work is held in prominent public collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the British Museum, London; Pinault Collection, Venice and Paris; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah Art Foundation.
The work belongs to Moshiri’s important series of jar paintings, through which he explored the challenge of translating the curved, three-dimensional presence of an ancient vessel onto a two-dimensional surface. His interest in these objects was also deeply personal. With an archaeologist wife, Moshiri once collected old vessels until the police, suspecting that one of the jars had been stolen, intervened. He subsequently abandoned collecting and instead began to paint them. The carefully constructed surface recalls the unworked clay of ancient Iran, achieved through a process of layering and scrubbing the paint, folding the canvas, leaving it exposed to the elements, and applying glue. The resulting texture gives the vessel the appearance of an excavated object, while simultaneously revealing the physical intervention of the artist.
This deliberate engagement with antiquity can be understood as part of Moshiri’s search for, and rediscovery of, a lost Iranian identity following his return home from the United States. The Farsi lettering that appears throughout his jar paintings often draws on the language of everyday life—calls from street vendors, love letters and song lyrics. Yet for many Iranians, these familiar expressions carry a more poignant undertone. Following the 1979 Revolution, such language could also convey a sense of loss, connecting the personal with a broader experience of cultural dislocation. In contrast to the brighter colours that characterise many of Moshiri’s later works, including those aligning more overtly with the visual language of Pop Art, the present work is distinguished by its restrained palette. Its natural tones recall the deserts of Iran and the adobe dwellings of its villages, further grounding the work in memories of the artist’s recent past. Through its monumental scale, tactile surface and evocation of antiquity, the familiar domestic vessel becomes a meditation on memory, place and the elusive traces of Iranian history.
Farhad Moshiri stands among the most distinctive figures of post-revolutionary Iranian contemporary art. Born in Shiraz in 1963, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in 1984, before returning to Tehran in 1991. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, video and embroidery, Moshiri developed an eclectic practice that brought together Persian history and visual culture with popular imagery and the language of Western consumerism. A recurring motif in his work was the antique Iranian vessel, which became a vehicle for his exploration of archaeology, memory and cultural identity. His wider practice was equally experimental in its use of materials, incorporating Swarovski crystals, sequins, embroidery and cake-icing dispensers, often combining decorative excess with an ironic sensibility.
Moshiri’s work has been exhibited internationally, in 2017–18, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh presented his first solo museum exhibition and mid-career survey. His work is held in prominent public collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the British Museum, London; Pinault Collection, Venice and Paris; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah Art Foundation.