Massumeh Farhad

Massumeh Farhad is an Iranian-born American curator, art historian, and author. She is the Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Asian Art.^[1][2] She is known for her work with Persian 17th-century manuscripts.^[3]

Massumeh Farhad
Born	Iran
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation(s)	Curator, art historian, author
Known for	Islamic art history, Iranian art history, Turkish art history

Biography

Massumeh Farhad grew up in Iran, and emigrated from Iran to the United States to attend university.^[4] Farhad has a PhD (1987) in art history from Harvard University.^[3] In 1997, she had been in a relationship with the Chief Curator of the National Museum of African Art, Philip L. Ravenhill (1945–1997) before his death.^[5]

She has contributed to the Encyclopaedia Iranica.^[3] Farhad has curated numerous exhibitions including the "Art of the Persian Courts" (1996),^[6] "The Heroic Past: The Persian Book of Kings" (2000),^[7] "Fountains of Light: The Nuhad Es-Said Collection of Metalwork" (2000),^[8] "Antoin Sevruguin and the Persian Image" (2001),^[9] "The Adventures of Hamza" (2002),^[10] "Style and Status: Imperial Costumes From Ottoman Turkey" (2005),^[11] "Facing East: Portraits from Asia" (2006),^[12] "Falnama: The Book of Omens" (2009),^[2] and "The Art of Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art" (2016–2017).^[13][14][15]

Publications

• Farhad, Massumeh (1987). Safavid Single Page Painting, 1629–1666 (thesis). Harvard University. OCLC 192140330.
• Farhad, Massumeh (1990). The Art of Mu'in Musavvir: A Mirror of His Times.
• Simpson, Marianna Shreve; Farhad, Massumeh (1997). Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang: A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-century Iran. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300068023.
• Babaie, Sussan; Babayan, Kathryn; McCabe, Ina Baghdiantz; Farhad, Massumeh (2003). Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1860647215.^[16][17]
• Farhad, Massumeh; Bağcı, Serpil (2009). Falnama: The Book of Omens. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 9780934686150.^[18]
• Farhad, Massumeh; McAuliffe, Jane; Rettig, Simon; Déroche, François; Tanındı, Zeren (2016). Farhad, Massumeh; Rettig, Simon (eds.). The Art of the Qurʼan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. Türk ve İslâm Eserleri Müzesi (Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts). Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 9781588345783.^[19]

See also

• Women in the art history field

References

1. Brown, Matthew Hay (2009-11-05). "Rare Islamic art put online for all". The Baltimore Sun. pp. A1, A10. Retrieved 2022-10-17 – via Newspapers.com. says Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution
2. Melikian, Souren (2009-11-20). "The Beginnings of Divination". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-16. chief curator at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
3. Moulton, Gavin (March 25, 2022). "Dr. Massumeh Farhad". Middle East Policy Council. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
4. "Dr. Massumeh Farhad". Middle East Policy Council (MEPC). 25 March 2022. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
5. Cotter, Holland (1997-10-16). "Philip L. Ravenhill, 52, Expert On the Art and Culture of Africa". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
6. Cotter, Holland (1997-02-23). "Mergings of History, Myth and Dream". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
7. Cotter, Holland (2000-08-25). "Art Review; Politics Runs Through More Than Campaigns". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
8. Newsletter, East Asian Art and Archaeology. East Asian Program, University of Michigan. 1998. p. 7.
9. Rexer, Lyle (2001-05-13). "ART/ARCHITECTURE; A Persian Pioneer In a Western Art". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
10. Smith, Roberta (2002-08-30). "Art Review; Every Which Way to Paint". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
11. Cotter, Holland (2005-12-05). "Dressing for Ottoman Success in a Blaze of Silk and Gold". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
12. Cotter, Holland (2006-07-21). "Summer in Washington, Where Image Is All". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
13. Inskeep, Steve (December 2, 2016). "Quran Exhibition Shines A Light On The Holy Books' Dedicated Artists". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
14. Cotter, Holland (2016-11-10). "'The Art of the Qur'an,' a Rare Peek at Islam's Holy Text". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
15. Dražović, Željko (2017-03-02). "The forgotten beauty of Islamic Art". Arthive. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
16. Floor, Willem (2006). "Review of Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 38 (1): 141–142. doi:10.1017/S0020743806272283. ISSN 0020-7438. JSTOR 3879803. S2CID 161925043.
17. Rota, Giorgio (2005). "Review of Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran". Middle East Journal. 59 (4): 696–697. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4330207.
18. Natif, Mika (2010-10-06). "Mika Natif. Review of "Falnama: The Book of Omens" by Massumeh Farhad". CAA Reviews. doi:10.3202/caa.reviews.2010.110. ISSN 1543-950X.
19. Chaigne, Frantz (2018-03-10). "Massumeh Farhad, Simon Rettig. The Art of the Qur'an, Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts". Abstracta Iranica. Revue bibliographique pour le domaine irano-aryen (in French). doi:10.4000/abstractairanica.42580. ISSN 0240-8910. Volume 37-38-39 – via OpenEdition Journals.