until Wed. June 03 2015

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
T : +1 (212) 423 3500
1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
10128 New York
United States

Infinite Possibility. Mirror Works and Drawings

This is the first U.S. museum exhibition of mirror works and drawings by Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (b. Qazvin, Iran, 1924). Considered in relation to the Guggenheim’s historical commitment to abstraction, this presentation examines the artist’s rich body of work in its own right and as part of a transnational perspective on artistic production and its reception.

This presentation includes plaster and mirror reliefs, large-scale mirror sculptures the artist refers to as “geometric families,” and works on paper, revealing the central role drawing has played in Monir’s practice and focusing on a sculptural and graphic oeuvre developed over more than 40 years (many examples of which have not been displayed publicly since the 1970s). This body of work is characterized by a merging of visual and spatial experience, coupled with the aesthetic traditions of Islamic architecture and decoration. Her use of geometry as form allows for, in the artist’s words, “infinite possibility.”