Background
Behjat Sadr Mahallāti was born to Mohammad Sadr-e Mahallāti and Qamar Amini Sadr in Arak, Iran on 29 May 1924.
Behjat Sadr Mahallāti was born to Mohammad Sadr-e Mahallāti and Qamar Amini Sadr in Arak, Iran on 29 May 1924.
Sadr is known for her paintings that utilizing a palette knife on canvases to create impressionistic paintings featuring visual rhythm, movement and geometric shapes. Sadr began her studies at the University of Tehran faculty of fine arts Sadr"s first major exhibition was at the twenty-eighth Venice Biennial in 1956.
Sadr was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late 1990s, but continued to paint.
She died at age 85 of a heart attack on 11 August 2009 in Corsica. Legacy
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. Which includes footage of the artist at work as well as extensive interviews.
Group Exhibitions
1956 – Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
1957 – Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
1957 – Galleria Il Pincio, Rome, Italy
1962 – Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
1962 – The 3rd Tehran Painting Biennial, Tehran, Iran
1962 – São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil
1987 – "Iranian Contemporary Art: Four Women", Foxley Leach Gallery, Washington District of Columbia.
In 1957, Sadr returned to the University of Tehran as a member of faculty and taught there for almost 20 years.