Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Geneva

Exhibited:
Dubai, The Third Line, Recollection: Works by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, 2007

Literature:
Damiani Editore and The Third Line, Monir Sharoudy Farmanfarmaian - Cosmic Geometry , 2011, illustrated on page 135

"Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is not only a pioneering figure of Iranian art but also a forerunner of current artistic models that participate in global dialogues without annihilating local difference. Her work serves to activate memory- a memory that is as multidimensional as the artist herself. In this respect she has been a role model for the artist of the twenty-first century since the 1950's"
- Hans Ulrich Obrist

"What makes Monir stand out among all Iranian artists is the way her art refuses to age. Monir's enduring appeal stems from her ability to navigate and find a balance between traditionalism and the avant-garde, past and present, the rooted and the nomadic. Her art, wisdom, strength, humility and vigorous energy have earned her a legacy that will continue to prevail over time"
- Shirin Neshat

"Monir chose to make art from the imagery that surrounded her everyday life in Iran, and she chose to make art with the artisans who have striven with their gift of ornament to beat back the desert blindness, the blank expression of nature. In Monir's mirrored geometries, we recognise a subtle self-defence, and we step aside to allow nature to confront its unknowable, empty self"
Frank Stella

"The very space seemed on fire, the lamps blazing in hundreds of thousands of reflection... It was a universe unto itself, architecture transformed into performance, all movement and fluid light, all solids fractured and dissolved in brilliance in space. In prayer, I was overwhelmed"
– Monir Farmanfarmaian

Radiant, enigmatic and complex, "Qazvin" is one of the finest, and perhaps most personal examples of Monir Farmanfarmaians iconic mirror-work to come to market. Named after the city of her birth, Qazvin, it is here as a child, where Monir first became inspired by the traditional Persian craft-work which would form the basis of her oeuvre.

Marrying craft, geometry and spiritual symbolism, Monir's composition extracts the centuries old Iranian tradition of mirrored panelling from its architectural setting, elevating it to an art form in its own right. Informed by a deep understanding of numerology and symbolism, Monir's work sheds light on the significance of shapes and signs within the typology of classical Islamic art, in an aesthetic framework that is captivating and intricate
Large in scale, sculptural in presence, and exhibiting an endless array of reflective variations, Qazvin is one of the most tightly composed and intricate examples of Monir's work.

Exhibited and published in her major 2011 Monograph, Qazvin is a sublime example from an artist who has elevated her countries vernacular craft into a universal aesthetic, and in doing so, has become one of the most internationally acclaimed figures to emerge from Iran within the past century.

Everything Connects

"During the Safavid period the Iranian kings wanted large mirrors to be installed during the construction of their rooms. The mirrors were for the women [of the harem] to see themselves. But these mirrors would get broken along the Silk Road, and rather than waste them, the craftsmen used the shards as they used tile and plaster in the geometric designs. They used small pieces and put them all together to make a beautiful reflection.
When I discovered the mirror-mosaics, I realised nothing is done spontaneously; it is all a calculation of geometry and design. If you divide a circle at three points, it will be a triangle. In Islamic design the triangle is the intelligent human being. Each element has a meaning in Islamic design. The five sides of the pentagon are the five senses.
The hexagon reflects the six virtues: generosity, self-discipline, patience, determination, insight and compassion. Sol Lewitt had his square, and it was wonderful how far he went with the square. For me, everything connects with the hexagon. And the hexagon has the most potential for three-dimensional sculpture and architectural forms"

- Monir Farmanfarmaian


Monir Farmanfarmian: A Life

Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1924, Farmanfarmaian begun her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran before embarking to New York, where she attended Parson, The New School for Design and Cornell University, and worked as a fashion illustrator. It was in New York that Monir' mixed with the cities emerging cultural avant-garde, collaborating with artists such as Andy Warhol on illustrations for the Bonwit Teller department store.

It was only after moving back to Tehran that Monir developed her signature style. Influenced by the arts and crafts of her native country, Farmanfarmaian fashioned an artform out of mirror-mosaic work drawing on traditional techniques of reverse-glass painting, inlaid carving, Islamic geometry, and architectural design. To create her reliefs and sculptures, Farmanfarmaian commissioned craftsmen to draft her early designs, then cut mirrors to fit the required shape, which were set in geometrical patterns, and mixed with plaster to produce new compositions into which the artist incorporated colored glass.

Monir Farmanfarmaian received international acclaim in 1958, when she was presented a gold medal for her work in the Iranian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, this was followed by exhibitions in Tehran, Paris and New York. She has recently become the focus of significant institutional interest, having held important exhibitions worldwide including the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2016); a major career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (2015) and at the Fundação Serralves–Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal (2014).

She is the subject of a substantial monograph, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Cosmic Geometry, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist; and has authored an autobiography, A Mirror Garden (Knopf, 2007). Farmanfarmaian's work is placed in some of the most important institutions around the world, including: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Tate Modern, London, U.K.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

Aesthetic
Monir's application of mirror-work in her compositions is resonant in three particular ways. Firstly, her use of mirror-mosaics is an adoption of a longstanding decorative architectural tradition. These mirrors provided the "purest" form of decorative assemblage, reflecting and redirecting light in order to embellish shrines and palaces with an abundance of brightness, elevating the sanctity of holy spaces and aggrandizing the majesty of Royal buildings. It is interesting to note the purity of the mirror as an object; carrying no compositional or visual content in and of itself, it acts merely to emphasize and exaggerate existing light, in this sense it is a medium through which the artist or craftsmen magnifies the splendour of the natural world

Geometric
The shapes and patterns which Monir' employs in her compositions are clearly and intentionally derived from the geometric and numerological formulae present in Islamic and Iranian architecture. Whilst decoratively complex, the use of geometric patterns and tessellations points to a far deeper conceptual agenda, "the proliferation of arabesque abstract decoration enhances a quality that could only be attributed to God, namely, His irrational infinity," scholar Wijdan Ali observes in The Arab Contribution to Islamic Art (the American University in Cairo Press, 1999). "The pattern of the arabesque, without a beginning or an end, portrays this sense of infinity, and is the best means to describe in art the doctrine of tawhid, or Divine Unity."

Symbolic
Beyond the aesthetic and physical characteristics of the mosaic-patterns employed by Monir in works such as Qazvin, there lies a far deeper spiritual symbolism evident in the use of the mirror as a medium. In Sufi tradition, the concept of divinity as residing within the "self" prompts introspection and inward reflection as one of the key guides to enlightenment and oneness with God. The Mirror, as a literal object with which we can confront ourselves, is thus transformed into an allegorical device for self-examination and the inward journey that must be traversed in order to understand the mystical dimensions of the divine.