Overview
Sharjah Art Foundation is pleased to announce that Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s Khayyam Fountain is now on view at Al Hamriyah Studios in Sharjah.
In one of her most ambitious realised projects, Khayyam Fountain, the artist draws inspiration from the polymath Omar Khayyam, known for his work on cubic equations, his influence on the development of the Persian calendar as well as his poetry, widely translated into English as the Rubájyát. For this homage, Farmanfarmaian interleaves multi-sided shapes—triangles, pentagons and hexagons—to form a tower that rotates precipitously above a hollow base, creating varied refractions of light at different times of the day. The form of the fountain evokes the metaphor of water as a constant fount of life.
‘Presenting this work in Al Hamriyah Studios has particular significance as it is the site of the artist’s final retrospective during her lifetime, organised by the Foundation in 2019,’ said SAF Director Hoor Al Qasimi. ‘The long-term installation of Khayyam Fountain commemorates Farmanfarmaian’s significant and influential artistic practice and reflects the Foundation’s commitment to providing a platform for artists from the MENASA region. Its prominent and central location in Al Hamriyah Studios makes it accessible year-round to the local and international audiences that take part in the Foundation exhibitions, public programmes and residences, and we are looking forward to the work becoming a long-term fixture for the public to enjoy and experience.’
The last major installation to be completed by the artist, Khayyam Fountain was commissioned by Bruges Triennial 2018: Liquid City, Belgium. On long-term loan to Sharjah Art Foundation, Khayyam Fountain finds its initial home in Al Hamriyah Studios where the artists’s final retrospective, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Sunset, Sunrise, co-curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, was presented (12 October–28 December 2019) in collaboration with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Ireland.
Sunset, Sunrise was first presented at IMMA from 10 August to 25 November 2018 and was co-curated by Rachel Thomas (Senior Curator, Head of Exhibitions, IMMA) and Hoor Al Qasimi (Director, Sharjah Art Foundation).
Over nearly six decades, Farmanfarmaian fashioned luminous abstract sculptures and drawings out of glass, mosaic, paper and fabric. Fusing her interests in geometry, Sufism and Islamic architecture, the artist’s primary experiments were with pattern, colour and repetition. The result is a kaleidoscopic body of abstract works that brings together her interest in minimalism and the craftsmanship of sixteenth century glass and mosaic sculpting in Iran.
SAF Senior Curator and Director of Collections Omar Kholeif added: ‘Khayyam Fountain is an installation that captures the imagination with its complexity, specifically its ethereal interplay with light, and was one of Farmanfarmaian's most ambitious artworks. In Sharjah, it is given a new lease of life. Surrounded by windows, beams of light activate the artwork's myriad glass formations, its tessellating forms change with the day, revealing Farmanfarmaian's passion of turning glass into an active and animate material—a form of cinema.’
Admission to Al Hamriyah Studios is free and it is open to visitors from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, Saturday to Thursday, and from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Friday.
For more information, visit sharjahart.org.
About Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
The distinguished career of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922–2019) spanned more than six decades. The artist explored the repetition of patterns and forms in Islamic art and architecture to form colourful motifs.
Farmanfarmaian was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1924. She moved to New York in 1945 to study art and fashion, and during her time there she formed friendships with fellow artists such as Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. In 1957, she returned to Iran, however, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 Farmanfarmaian found herself exiled to New York. She was able to return to Iran in 2004, where she regained her place in the Iranian art scene.
Her work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and Sharjah Art Foundation. In 2018, The Monir Museum opened in Tehran as the first solo museum in Iran.
About Sharjah Art Foundation
Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the Emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. Under the leadership of founder Hoor Al Qasimi, a curator and artist, the Foundation advances an experimental and wide-ranging programmatic model that supports the production and presentation of contemporary art, preserves and celebrates the distinct culture of the region and encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art. The Foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.
Established in 2009 to expand programmes beyond the Sharjah Biennial, which launched in 1993, the Foundation is a critical resource for artists and cultural organisations in the Gulf and a conduit for local, regional and international developments in contemporary art. The Foundation’s deep commitment to developing and sustaining the cultural life and heritage of Sharjah is reflected through year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and learning programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the Emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. A growing collection reflects the Foundation’s support of contemporary artists in the realisation of new work and its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.
Sharjah Art Foundation is a legally independent public body established by Emiri Decree and supported by government funding, grants from national and international nonprofits and cultural organisations, corporate sponsors and individual patrons. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
About Sharjah
Sharjah is the third largest of the seven United Arab Emirates and the only one bridging the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Reflecting the deep commitment to the arts, architectural preservation and cultural education embraced by its ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. It was named UNESCO's Arab Capital of Culture in 1998 and the UNESCO World Book Capital in 2019.
Media Contact
Alyazeyah Al Reyaysa
+971(0)65444113
alyazeyah@sharjahart.org