Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

In early 1957, Farmanfarmaian moved back to Iran. Inspired by the resident culture, she discovered "a fascination with tribal and folk artistic tradition" of her country's history, which "led her to rethink the past and conceive a new path for her art."[5] In the following years, she would further develop her Persian inspiration by crafting mirror mosaics and abstract monotypes. Meanwhile her work was featured at the Iran Pavilion in the 1958 Venice Biennale,[10] and holding a number of exhibitions in places such as Tehran University (1963), the Iran-America Society (1973), and the Jacques Kaplan/Mario Ravagnan Gallery (1974).[5]

In 1979, Farmanfarmaian and her second husband, Abol-Bashar, travelled to New York to visit family. [5] Around the same time, the Islamic Revolution began, and so the Farmanfarmaians found themselves exiled from Iran, an exile that would last for over twenty years. [5] Farmanfarmaian attempted to reconcile her mirror mosaics with the limited resources offered in America, but the lack of materials such as thin mirrors and the comparatively inexperienced workers restricted her work. [5] In the meantime, she placed more significant emphasis on other aspects of her art, such as commissions, textile designs, and drawing. [11]

In 1992, Farmanfarmaian returned to Iran and later, in Tehran in 2004, she reaffirmed her place among Iran's art community, gathering both former and new employees to help create her mosaics.[5] She continued to live and work in Tehran until her death.[12]

On 20 April 2019 Farmanfarmaian died at her home at the age of 96.[13]

Around the 1970s, Farmanfarmaian visited the Shah Cheragh mosque in Shiraz, Iran.[14] With the shrine's "high-domed hall ... covered in tiny square, triangular, and hexagonal mirrors,"[14] similar to many other ancient Iranian mosques,[3] this event acted as a turning point in Farmanfarmaian's artistic journey, leading to her interest in mirror mosaic artwork. In her memoir, Farmanfarmaian described the experience as transformative:

"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."[14]

Aided by the Iranian craftsman, Hajji Ostad Mohammad Navid, she created a number of mosaics and exhibition pieces by cutting mirrors and glass paintings into a multitude of shapes, which she would later reform into constructions which evoked aspects of Sufism and Islamic culture.[5] Āina-kāri is the traditional art of cutting mirrors into small pieces and slivers, placing them in decorative shapes over plaster. This form of Iranian reverse glass and mirror mosaics is a craft traditionally passed on from father to son. Farmanfarmaian, however, was the first contemporary artist to reinvent the traditional medium in a contemporary way.[15] By striving to mix Iranian influences and the tradition of mirror artwork with artistic practices outside of strictly Iranian culture, "offering a new way of looking at ancient aesthetic elements of this land using tools that are not limited to a particular geography," Farmanfarmaian was able to express a cyclical conception of spirituality, space, and balance in her mosaics.[5]

Major commissioned installations include work for the Queensland Art Gallery (2009), the Victoria and Albert Museum (2006), the Dag Hammerskjold building, New York (1981) and the Niyavaran Cultural Center (1977–78), as well as acquisitions by the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[18] The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.[24]

The film Monir (2014) directed by Bahman Kiarostami, is a documentary about Farmanfarmaian's life and work.[16][35]

A Mirror Garden: A Memoir (2008) by Monir Farmanfarmaian and Zara Houshmand (ISBN 978-0307278784)

"In Persia in 1924, when a child still had to worry about hostile camels in the bazaar and a nanny might spin stories at her pillow until her eyes fell shut, the extraordinary and irresistible Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was born. From the enchanted basement storeroom where she played as a girl to the penthouse high above New York City where she would someday live, this is the delightful and inspiring story of her life as an artist, a wife and mother, a collector, and an Iranian. Here we see a mischievous girl become a spirited woman who defies tradition." (Excerpt from Penguin House)[36]

Monir Sharoudy Farmanfarmaian: Heartaches (2007) by Rose Issa (ISBN 978-9646994539)

"The Heartaches' series sculptural boxes made of mixed collages and arrangements of photographs, prints and various objects was made by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfamaian in New York in the Nineties. These twenty-five intimate small-scale sculptures were primarily made after the loss of her husband, and draw inspiration from all the places, faces and paraphernalia that at some stage in her history were associated with a happy family life." (Excerpt from Amazon)

Selected Works of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian 1979-2008 (2009) (ISBN 978-6005191035)

"This overview of Iranian artist Farmanfarmaian charts a selection of her works created since she fled Iran at the beginning of the Iranian revolution in 1979, and that have been produced both during her exile in New York and subsequently since her return to her homeland some two decades later. While this period of exile has had an undeniable impact on the style of her work, aesthetic elements derived from Iranian traditions and practice remain consistently visible throughout her works. Presented in chronological order, this book includes a selection of the artists manuscripts, collages, reverse paintings on glass, mirror works, etchings and sculptures, all clearly and generously reproduced one to a page." (Excerpt from Amazon)

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Cosmic Geometry (2011) (ISBN 978-8862081757)

Published by Damiani Editore & The Third Line. The book features in-depth interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and critical essays by Nader Ardalan, Media Farzin and Eleanor Sims, tributes by Farmanfarmaian's friends Etel Adnan, Siah Armajani, caraballo-farman, Golnaz Fathi, Hadi Hazavei, Susan Hefuna, Aziz Isham, Rose Issa, Faryar Javaherian, Abbas Kiarostami, Shirin Neshat, Donna Stein and Frank Stella.

Other Publications:

Her work is documented in Iranian Contemporary Art, Barbican Art Centre, Booth Clibborn, 2001; Zendegi, 11 Iranian Contemporary Artists, Beirut Exhibition. She is referenced in an excerpt from The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture by Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar (1973), and an annotated timeline of Farmanfarmaian's life by Negar Azimi.[37] Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou, (2021). She has a chapter in 'Women's Work' by Ferren Gipson.[38]