The work of Farhad Moshiri is being bought by Middle Eastern collectors in Tehran, Dubai and London, with growing interest from the US.
Following a string of auction records and sell-out shows in Dubai, the artist’s Eshgh, a black canvas spelling out the Farsi word for love in Swarovski crystals and glitter (right), became the first contemporary work by a Middle Eastern artist to make over $1m when Bonhams sold it in Dubai in March. Born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1963, Moshiri studied at the California Institute of the Arts, returning to Iran in the early 1990s. He is best known for his series of large paintings of antique ceramic jars, overlaid with calligraphic phrases taken from Iranian pop songs and consumer slogans. He has worked in the media of installation, photography, and embroidery, and in 2006 and 2007 produced a series of canvases depicting cakes, flowers, brides and soldiers, sculpted out of frosted fondant using cake-decorating tools.
The Art Newspaper: Critics and curators have been following your work for the past decade but since Christie’s launched its auctions in Dubai in 2006, your market value has rocketed. What do you make of this?
Farhad Moshiri: Some people who enter the art market overnight are in it for the money and everyone’s talking about not missing out. I thought: “OK, people in Iran don’t have the buying power of Dubai or New York”, but actually this isn’t the case—the market isn’t made up of separate clusters anymore. Suddenly collectors are everywhere, buying the same work, paying similar prices. Now there’s a wider collector base—we show in more art fairs, not necessarily just in the Middle East. Collectors in Dubai might be willing to pay double the prices but we need the international base too.
TAN: Is the market for Middle Eastern work sustainable?
FM: I have no idea. I can’t generalise, I can only talk personally. For me, [the Bonhams auction] reiterated the fact that there are no limits—in both the market and the art-making process. Right now, I want to make things that are more fantastic and I want to feel free [to do so]. I couldn’t look this far ahead two years ago.
