 Luminous gratitude
Law school presented with art
By Fathali Ghahremani
April 2, 2004
iranian.com
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian has presented the School of Law at Colombia University with one of her spectacular works of art. The work, known as "Luminous
Desert", was hung in the Colombia University Law School library's Jerome L. Green Hall. She presented the work in honor of her husband, Dr. Abol Bashar Farmanfarmaian, a doctoral graduate in international law from Colombia's Law
School.
Mrs. Farmanfarmaian has made a career of combining
traditional Iranian palatial, sacred, and folk arts with
a uniquely modern
and post-contemporary aesthetic. As early as the 1970's,
she drew on the geometric patterns of traditional Islamic
art, as well as the mirror and glasswork of traditional
interior design, to create a series of secular geometric images
and
stainless
steel sculptures that were simultaneously historically
derivative, and
completely avant-garde.
Farmanfarmaian has gone on to engage
the rich traditions of Iranian art in her work, especially
the areas
of folk art and handicraft that have received little
exposure in the west. Her body of work portrays her comfort with
the Western canon, a technical appreciation for high craftsmanship,
and an
artistic vision infused with originality: but it is her
allegiance
to isolating out the novel elements of traditional Persian
design that sets her apart from her contemporaries.
While living in Iran, Farmanfarmaian was 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.
Elements of these pieces find their way into all
of Farmanfarmaian's
later works, as she applied the traditional techniques
and
combined them with her western art education. To
this day, she remains
the only artist who explores the potential of mirror
and glass
as one
of her main media. Her use of glass
and mirror work, geometric design, calligraphic elements,
traditional
stucco technique, and collage -- her affinity for
merging the secular
with the profane, and the popular with the profound
-- foreshadows a post-colonial sensibility. She forces
her
audience
to observe
old beauty in new ways.
Farmanfarmaian was born Qazvin,
Iran, in1924. Having started her studies in Fine
Arts at the Tehran
university,
she was one of the first Iranian students to come
to the United States after World War II to complete
her
studies
in Fine Arts
study at Cornell University. She graduated from
Parsons School of Design in 1949 and became a Member of the
New York Art
Students' League
(1950-53).
Farmanfarmaian has participated
in a number of national and international exhibitions. She participated
in
the Venice Biennale (Gold Medal 1958, 1964, 1966), and the first
Tehran Biennial (1958). Her works have been exhibited extensively
in Tehran, the US, and Europe, most notably at the Iran American
Society (1973 and 1976); the Italian Institute (1966 and 1968);
Jacques Kaplan Gallery in New York; the Kennedy Center, Washington
DC (1975); Gallerie Denise Rene, Paris and New York (1977).
Farmanfarmaian has also been involved with several
group shows, including The Heritage of Islam (New York, 1982-84);
Bernice Steinbaum
Gallery touring exhibition (1985-86); Museum of Modern Art (New
York, 1986-87). Her works are currently on display in the Carpet
Museum, Tehran; the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; Niyavaran
Cultural Centre, Tehran; Grey Art Gallery at New York University;
Hotel Intercontinental, Tehran and Shiraz; Jeddah International
Airport, Saudi Arabia; and Chase Manhattan Bank, New York.
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