Behjat Sadr

Behjat Sadr, born in Arak in 1924, was a significant figure in Iranian modernism. After studying in Tehran, she continued her training in Italy from 1955 and developed an abstract painting practice. She worked on canvas, wood and metal, sometimes using industrial paints on supports laid on the floor. Her gestures trace dark rhythms, often approaching organic forms, in which painted matter and empty space define one another.

Experiment runs throughout her career. In the late 1960s, motorised blinds introduced actual movement into some works. Later, photography and collage renewed her engagement with landscape and memory, particularly during her years in Paris. Sadr maintained an open investigation into support, body and image, allowing the possibilities of her art to extend beyond the boundaries of a single technique.