Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was arguably the most notable female artist from the Arabic world over the past 100 years. Born in Qazvin, she moved to the US in 1944 where she studied at the Art Students League and became close friends with a young Andy Warhol. She moved back to Iran three times over the course of her life (permanently in 1992), her career often disrupted by political pressures, but her work was eventually typified by a marrying of traditional Persian cut-glass art to a glamorous Westernised mindset. This is perhaps most evident in “Infinite Possibilities”, the large-scale mirror structures she exhibited at the Guggenheim in 2015 – becoming the first Iranian artist to have a solo exhibition at a major American gallery.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
16 December 1922 – 20 April 2019
Died aged 96 (unique pick)