Manoucher Yektai
Manoucher Yektai (b. 1921, Tehran, Iran; d. 2019, New York City) was a Persian-American artist of the New York School whose painterly impasto works capture still lifes, portraits, and color fields with equal expressiveness. His intense, lyrical pieces maneuver between naturalism and abstraction. Yektai worked on his paintings from the floor, a feature that contributed to their visual dynamism and channeled a mid-century sense of artistic freedom. Invigorating bursts of color, sharp slashes, and wedges of impasto register these expressive gestures. Recognized as a founding member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, Yektai’s practice was shaped by interactions with contemporaries such as de Kooning, Pollock, Kline and Rothko. Yet his celebration of quotidian beauty is elevated by a vivid blending of cultures. His work was equally informed by his studies in Paris—where he was influenced by the textures of Cezanne, Vuillard, and Bonnard—and by his own Persian origins. Yektai studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Atelier of André Lhote in Paris, as well as at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Hale.
Karma presented Yektai’s first solo show at the gallery in 2021. His work can be found at the Detroit Institute of Arts; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana.
Born 1921, Tehran, Iran
Died 2019, New York
EDUCATION
1940
University of Tehran, Tehran
1945
Art Students League, New York
1946
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Karma, New York
2019
Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery, London, The Night Is Your Day
1998
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, Paintings 1951-1997, curated by Donna Stein
1996
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1988
Kent Fine Art, Kent, Connecticut, Paris – New York
1984
Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1981
Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York
1978
Galerie Zand, Teheran, Iran
1977
Galerie Zand, Teheran, Iran
1975
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1973
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1972
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1970
Picadilly Gallery, London
Iran American Society, Abbasabad
1969
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit
1967
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit
1966
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1965
Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit, Michigan
Semia Huber Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco
1964
Picadilly Gallery, London
Poindexter Gallery, New York
Donald Morris Gallery, Detroit
Hack-Light Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1963
Semia Huber Gallery, Zürich
Anderson-Mayor, Paris
Felix Landau, Los Angeles
Feingarten Gallery, Chicago
1962
Picadilly Gallery, London
Anderson-Mayor, Paris
Feingarten Gallery, Chicago
Poindexter Gallery, New York
1961
Picadilly Gallery, London
Semia Huber Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
1960
Semia Huber Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
Poindexter Gallery, New York
1959
Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles
Poindexter Gallery, New York
1958
Poindexter Gallery, New York
1957
Poindexter Gallery, New York
1956
American Associated Artists, New York
1953
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Inc., New York
1952
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Inc., New York
1951
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Inc., New York
1949
Woodstock, New York
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, Some seasons: Fereydoun Ave and the Laal Collection, 1959-2019, curated by Negar Azimi and Sohrab Mohebbi
2021
SFMOMA, San Francisco, Painting and Sculpture, 1900 to Now
2020
Karma, New York, (Nothing But) Flowers
2019
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965
Giardino Segreto, Milan, For a Rainy Day
2017
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, Yektai: Manoucher Yektai, Nico Yektai, Darius Yektai
2013
Asia Society, New York, Iran Modern, curated by Fereshteh Daftari and Layla S. Diba
2008
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana, The Poidexter Collection
1986
Alex Rosenberg Gallery, New York
1974
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, Flowers
Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York
1965
American Federation of Arts, New York, Realism and Reality, January 1965 – 1966
1964
Musée La Harve, France
1963
Museum of Cannes, Cannes
Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C., The 28th Biennale Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Annual Show
1962
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 65th Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, curated by A. James Speyer
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Recent Painting USA: The Figure. Traveled to: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs; Atlanta Art Association of Art, Atlanta; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St Louis; Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
1961
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Carnegie International
1960
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 60 American Painters
USIS, Paris
Museum of Modern art, New York, Recent Acquisitions
1958
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
American Federation of the Arts, Japan
1955
University of Illinois, Urbana, Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Pittsbugh International, Pittsburgh
1954
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Birmingham Museum, Birmingham
1953
Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Embellished Surface
Public Collections
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Montana Historical Society & Yellowstone Museum of Art, Billings, Montana
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
University Museum of Contemporary Art, Amherst, Massachusetts
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
