Monir Farmanfarmaian:
A Mirror Garden

This is the first posthumous exhibition at an American museum for Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922–2019), one of Iran’s most celebrated and revered visual artists, known internationally for her geometric mirror sculptures that combine the mathematical order and beauty of ancient Persian architectural motifs with the forms and patterns of hard-edged, postwar abstraction.

The exhibition’s title is borrowed from Farmanfarmaian’s 2007 memoir, co-authored by Zara Houshmand, which evokes the visual splendor of the artist’s mirror-mosaic sculptures. Objects on view will include a selection of sculptures, drawings, textiles, and collages spanning four decades, from 1974 to 2019. The exhibition was inspired by the High’s 2019 acquisition of Farmanfarmaian’s cut-mirror sculpture Untitled (Muqarnas) (2012) as well as her 2014 drawing Untitled (Circles and Squares).