The Institute of Arab and Islamic Art (IAIA) presented the first solo exhibition of Behjat Sadr’s art. Selected pieces depict her career over five decades. The display showed Sadr’s diverse skills, which spanned photography, photomontage, painting, kinetics, and unusual materials. The show will run from May 15thIr to August 27th.
Mohammed Al Thani founded the non-profit gallery, which highlights Arabian and Islamic artists. In their multidisciplinary exhibition space, they created outreach efforts and residency initiatives. The institution advanced the cultural and artistic dialogues between New York City and the Islamic world. Thani obtained Sadhr’s art from her estate.
Born in Iran, Sadr burst through the male-dominated and pre-revolutionary Iranian art scene. In the 20th century, she established herself as an abstract artist that defied the status quo. She studied and taught Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. In 1995, Rome College gave her a grant to study more art. She rose to fame by blending Western modern art with Persian visual culture.
In the exhibition’s selected pieces, Sadr experimented with the topics of body, memory, and medium. She used many materials, such as photographs, Venetian blinds, and tape. Her oil paintings featured dramatic color palettes. Through these techniques, she commented on Iran’s political scene. By the 1980s, Sadr moved to Paris.
Her battle with cancer constrained her work to a smaller scale. She created collages, which combined Iranian and Parisian landscape photography. Tight brushstrokes of paint accompanied the images. The later works showcased Sadr’s commitment to abstract mediums. The exhibition reflected this as well, with vastly different pieces.
An untitled painting from 1956 showcased her abstract techniques. Sadr smudged yellow oil paint on a gray canvas. It might have represented fossils buried in Iranian soil. Another untitled painting from the same year presented blue oil paint on wood. Rusty blue lines are curved on the material, which created an interlocking pattern.
A unique untitled piece from 1967 featured oil paints and aluminum foil on Venetian blinds. Sadr superimposed the blinds on wood. White paint smudges curved on a blue-and-black background. The smudges contained vertical black lines. The artwork came from a private collection.
From 1974 to 1975, Sadr used turquoise oil paints on a dark blue canvas. Black lines gave the illusion of shimmering buildings. Perhaps this scene incorporated metropolitan life.
A later piece featured a combination of oil paints and photographs on paper. A crinkly golden sun hung in the yellow sky. Paint smudges represented people, who walked on the horizon line. The artist cut photographs of Irainain soil to depict the ground.
IAIA featured a store, which stocked Arab and Islamic merchandise. Colorful satin clothes hung on a beige rack. Books for sale included Rumi’s Secret by Brad Gooch, Architecture After Revolution, and Erasure by Fazal Sheikh. Also, the store carried Sadr’s Traces artbook. The bookshelf contained a golden lamp and a white vase as well.
Another shelf held IAIA’s textbook library. It consisted of titles like Travels in Arabia, Language and Symbolic Power by Pierre Bourdieu, and Science in Medieval Islam. Other books included The Museum of Innocence by Orphan Pamuk and An American Born in Iraq by Steve Rawhi. A cylindric black-and-cream vase separated the shelves.
