Let the Garden Eram Flourish, from the Persian Gardens series

Bahar Behbahani, Iranian, born 1973

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2016

Mixed media on canvas

Canvas: 69 15/16 × 100 1/16 in. (177.7 × 254.2 cm)

Frame: 18 1/2 × 64 1/2 in. (47 × 163.8 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Virginia and Preston T. Kelsey 1958 Fund and the Olivia H. Parker and John O. Parker '58 Acquisition Fund

© Bahar Behbahani

2017.14

Geography

Place Made: Iran, West Asia, Asia

Period

21st century

Object Name

Painting

Research Area

Painting

Not on view

Label

Bahar Behbahani approaches Persian gardens as a metaphor for poetics and politics. These lush, walled gardens have long been complex structures architecturally and socially. As places of refuge and reflection, they appeal to people from diverse walks of life, but the Persian rulers and influential families who created them did so to broadcast their power and prestige.

Expressive marks and forms emerge and disappear from the surface, between swathes of cool and warm colors. Behbahani’s layered visual vocabulary references Persian architecture, textiles, and a garden teeming with life. Disrupting an otherwise organic composition, a channel drops to a deep blue geometric pool, inviting us to listen. In lieu of a faithful replication, the artist reimagines her subjects, providing a window into a world of her own making.

From the 2019 exhibition Entrance Gallery, curated by John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

Course History

WRIT 5.30, Representing Immigrants, Melissa Zeiger, Fall 2020

WRIT 5, Representing Immigrants, Melissa Zeiger, Fall 2021

SPEE 20.02, Public Speaking, Svetlana Grushina, Fall 2021

WRIT 5.31, Representing Immigrants, Melissa Zeiger, Fall 2021

Studio Art 31.01, Studio Art 72.01, Painting II, III, Andrew Shea, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Bahar Behbahani: Let the Garden Eram Flourish, Hood Downtown, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–March 12, 2017.

Entrance Gallery, Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 10-August 11, 2019.

Provenance

The artist, Brooklyn, New York; sold to present collection, 2017.

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