Behjat Sadr
Behjat Sadr (, 29 May 1924 – 10 August 2009), was an Iranian modern art painter whose works have been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Rome. In her paintings, Sadr is known for using a palette knife on canvases or metallic surfaces to create  visual rhythm, movement and geometric shapes.

Biography 
Behjat Sadr was born  in Arak, Iran on 29 May 1924. After her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, she obtained a scholarship to Italy, where she attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli in Naples.

Soon after arriving in Rome, she abandoned academic painting for an abstract approach. Sadr's first major exhibition was at the Gallery La Bussola in Roma in 1958. She had participated a year before at the twenty-eighth Venice Biennale in 1956 and won the second prize of San Vito Romano. During her years in Rome, her friendship deepened during with the Persian poet Forough Farrokhzad, who had been her student in Tehran. In Rome, she also met her second husband, the Persian composer, Morteza Hannaneh, whom she married in 1975 and with whom she had her only child, Kakuti (Mitra) Hannaneh.

In 1957, Sadr decided to return to the University of Tehran as a professor, despite opportunities to continue her painting in Rome and Paris. She continued teaching in Tehran for almost 20 years. 

Awarded the Royal Grand Prize at  theTehran Biennale 1962, she participated in international art fairs like the Venice Biennale and Sao Paulo Biennale and in many personal and group exhibitions. She spent two years in Paris on sabbatical in 1968 and 1975.

In 1980, one year after the Islamic Revolution in Iran,  Sadr and her daughter moved to Paris.

Death and legacy 
Sadr was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1980s but continued to paint. She died of a heart attack on 10 August 2009 at the age of 85, while swimming in Corsica. Several times in her writings, she spoke of her wish to die in the sea.

Sadr was the first female contemporary painter to be considered on the same level as her male colleagues in Iran.

In 2006, Sadr was the subject of a documentary film called Behjat Sadr: Time Suspended, directed by Mitra Farahani. This film includes footage of the artist at work, as well as extensive interviews.

The Behjat Sadr Endowment Fund has been established in 2020 with the aim of protecting and enhancing the work of the artist: Fonds de Dotation Behjat Sadr.

Solo exhibitions 

 1957: Il Pincio Gallery, Rome, Italy
 1958: La Bussola, Rome, Italy
 1963: Borghese Gallery, Tehran, Iran
 1967: Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran
 1975: Cyrus Gallery, Paris, France
 1977: Iranian-American Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
 1983: Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
 1984: Darial Gallery, Paris, France
 1985: Farhang-Sara Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
 1994: Nia cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
 2004: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
 2008: Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
 2008: Frederic Lacroix Gallery, Paris, France
 2010: Frederic Lacroix Gallery, Paris France
 2018: The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK
 2019: Balice Hertling Gallery, Paris, France
 2022: Balice Hertling Gallery, Paris, France
 2023: "Behjat SADR", IAIA IAIA, New York, USA

Group exhibitions 
 1956: Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
 1957: Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
 1957: Galleria Il Pincio, Rome, Italy
 1962: Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
 1962: The 3rd Tehran Painting Biennale, Tehran, Iran
 1962: São Paulo Art Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil
 1987: Iranian Contemporary Art: Four Women, Foxley Leach Gallery, Washington DC
 1992: Colombia University, New York, USA
 1992: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
 2002: "Between Word and Image, Modern Iranian Visual Culture", Gray Art Gallery, New York, USA
 2013: "Modernités Plurielles de 1905 à 1970", Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
 2013: "Iran Modern", Asia Society, New York, USA
 2014: "Unedited History. Iran 1960-2014", Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France
 2015: "Unedited History. Iran 1960-2014", MAXXI, Roma, Italy
 2021: "Epic Iran", Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
 2023: "Action Gesture Paint : Women Artists and Global Abstraction, 1940-1970", Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK and  Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Arles, France

See also 
 List of Iranian women artists

References

External links
 Official Movie Trailer for Behjat Sadr: Time Suspended (2006)
 "Playing with reality: The art of Behjat Sadr" interview from The Iranian (2002)

1924 births
2009 deaths
20th-century Iranian women artists
21st-century Iranian women artists
Iranian women painters
Contemporary painters
People from Arak, Iran
Iranian emigrants to France