Let the Garden Eram Flourish, from the Persian Gardens series
Bahar Behbahani, Iranian, born 1973
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
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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