Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was a prominent Iranian artist and significant member of the mid-20th Century New York art scene. They combined Western geometric abstraction with the beautiful cut-mirror stylings found in Āina-kāri, a traditional craft technique of Iran. Farmanfarmaian was inspired by the infinity of geometry, the lines and shapes that she found in old mosques, rendered in tile, wood, metal and plaster. The artist’s combining of the two styles, which originate from vastly different cultures – and her creation of artworks greater than the sum of their parts, elevating both the practice of Āina-kāri and abstraction – represented a cultural collision and hybridity felt and exemplified by the diaspora.