farideh lashai

Farideh Lashai, belonging to the second generation of modern painters, was born in 1944 in Rasht. She studied Decorative Arts in Vienna and completed a translation course at the Munich School before continuing her artistic career. The tradition, since the time of Cézanne, that emphasizes the physicality of paint can be seen in a modern form in Lashai’s works. Her abstract paintings of nature are a significant hallmark of her art. The nature she portrays relies on an inner awareness and conveys a poetic and emotional description. By blending colors together, she creates a fluid image of nature. Along with two other artists, Gizella Varga-Sinai and Farah Ossouli, Lashai co-founded the “Dena Group,” an association of Iranian women artists established in 2001. The group aimed to independently present their works and, during its six years of activity, showcased the creations of many Iranian women artists both inside the country and internationally. Farideh Lashai created her works with a spontaneous approach, always inspired by nature. Through the energy and rhythm of her brushstrokes, she transmitted a strong sense of emotion in each piece. She conveyed philosophical reflections on life within the framework of natural imagery. Free from the restrictions of classical artistic conventions, she approached subjects with freedom and fluidity. Poetry is the most distinctive characteristic of her paintings. Flowers in Lashai’s works do not resemble the common, generic images of flowers in our minds; rather, they bear the unique qualities of her artistic vision. She employed different media in her visual practice, always seeking new achievements in landscape painting and, more broadly, in painting itself. In some of her works, she also painted maps of Iran, expressing a flood of memories amidst chaos in her own unique way. Farideh Lashai passed away in 2013.