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Sharjah Art Foundation is proud to present the major retrospective Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Sunset, Sunrise, on view through Saturday, 28 December 2019 at the Foundation’s Al Hamriyah Studios. Organised in collaboration with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (IMMA), Sunset, Sunrise is the first retrospective of the late artist’s work since her passing earlier this year. With a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, Farmanfarmaian is considered one of the most important contemporary artists of her time.
‘It has been our great pleasure to collaborate with the Museum of Modern Art in Ireland on this timely exhibition celebrating the work of one of the most important and influential artists of the last century,’ said Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation and Co-Curator of Sunset, Sunrise. 'Over the course of her remarkable life and career, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian has made an essential contribution to the story of 20th century modernism.’
Born in 1924 in Qazvin, Iran, Farmanfarmaian moved to New York in 1945. She spent a number of years as part of the New York art scene, where she developed friendships with fellow artists such as Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. In 1957, she returned to Iran, but after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, she found herself exiled to New York. In 2004, she was able to return to her homeland, where she lived and worked for the remainder of her life.
Reflecting influences from her time in both Tehran and New York, the artist’s work is a unique combination of traditional Persian techniques and contemporary Western abstraction. The show’s title, Sunset, Sunrise, invokes the sky that both separates and connects the East and West, a motif that is recurrent throughout her work.
This exhibition includes more than 70 works in mediums ranging from painting, sculpture and jewellery to collages and works on paper. Farmanfarmaian’s signature mirrored works as well as some of her rarely exhibited works are also on view.
This exhibition is organised by IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland, in collaboration with Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, and co-curated by Rachel Thomas (Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA) and Hoor Al Qasimi (President and Director, Sharjah Art Foundation). It was previously on view at IMMA from August to November 2018.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue co-published by IMMA and Sharjah Art Foundation. The publication features contributions from Rahel Aima, Hoor Al Qasimi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Tina Kinsella, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rachel Thomas and Murtaza Vali, together with poetry by Michael Davitt, Rumi and Sohrab Sepehri.
A new limited edition print of a work by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, titled Sunrise, is available for purchase at the foundation’s art shops.