Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat, born 1957 in Qazvin, Iran, lives and works in New York. Neshat is known for her powerful explorations of identity, gender, exile, and the complex relationship between the individual and society – particularly within Islamic cultures. Working primarily in photography, video, and film, Neshat gained international acclaim in the 1990s with her black-and-white photographic series Women of Allah, which combined calligraphy, portraiture, and symbolism to confront Western stereotypes and challenge traditional roles of women in Iranian society. Her work often juxtaposes visual beauty with political and emotional intensity, using poetic imagery and contrasting perspectives to address themes of displacement and cultural duality. Now based in New York, Neshat continues to produce work that resonates globally while remaining deeply rooted in her personal experience of living between cultures.
Shirin Neshat Editions
From Roja
2016/2024
From FACES
Two digital pigment prints on Hahnemühle 300g rag paper, hand-torn, each 50 x 60 cm. Edition of 45 + 8 AP, signed and numbered on label verso of the second work.
This diptych edition by Shirin Neshat, based on stills from her film Roja, captures a moment of quiet intensity and psychological tension. Set against the stark, sculptural backdrop of a monumental architectural form, the female figure – Roja – appears both grounded and isolated, her gaze conveying a mixture of vulnerability and resolve. As in much of Neshat’s work, the visual composition emphasizes contrast and duality: modernity and tradition, self and society, presence and absence. The diptych format reinforces the fragmented nature of memory and identity, reflecting the film’s exploration of fear, longing, and cultural displacement through a poetic and symbolic lens.
Diptych EUR 4,200
Untitled (Tooba)
2002
Published for Documenta 11
C-print in mat, sandwiched between plexi sheets, in aluminum frame 61 x 66 cm (24 x 26 in). Edition of 35, signed and numbered on verso.
Shirin Neshat’s 2002 edition Untitled (Tooba) presents a single tree standing at the center of a dry, windswept landscape, surrounded by a quiet gathering of figures partially concealed in the shade of its branches. Evocative and symbolically rich, the image draws on the Qur'anic reference to the “Tree of Paradise” (Tooba) and speaks to themes of sanctuary, spiritual refuge, and collective identity. As in much of Neshat’s work, the composition balances starkness with poetic subtlety – contrasting the expansive sky and arid terrain with the intimate human presence beneath the tree. The work suggests both a longing for protection and a meditation on place, belonging, and the sacred in times of upheaval. The edition is based on a still from Neshat's film, Tooba, which explores Iranian identity and the movement of people from their homeland to an imagined utopia.
EUR 5,500
