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 The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and ...

and

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., focusing on Culture of Asia, Asian art. The Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the Uni ...

at the Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Asian Art The National Museum of Asian Art consists of the Smithsonian Institution’s two Asian art galleries, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which are situated in connecting buildings on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. ...

. She is known for her work with Persian 17th-century manuscripts.

Biography

Massumeh Farhad grew up in Iran, and emigrated from Iran to the United States to attend university. Farhad has a PhD (1987) in art history from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 1997, she had been in a relationship with the Chief Curator of the

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the Washington, D.C., United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African ar ...

, Philip L. Ravenhill (1945–1997) before his death. She has contributed to the

Encyclopaedia Iranica An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...

. Farhad has curated numerous exhibitions including the "Art of the Persian Courts" (1996), "The Heroic Past: The Persian

Book of Kings Book of Kings may refer to: * Books of Kings in the Bible * ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persian poem * ''Pararaton'', the Javanese Book of Kings, a 16th-century Javanese history of southeast Asia * ''The Book of Kings'', a 1999 World War II ...

" (2000), "Fountains of Light: The Nuhad Es-Said Collection of Metalwork" (2000), "

Antoin Sevruguin Antoin Sevruguin (; 1851–1933), known as Antoin Khan (Persian: آنتوان خان) was an Iranian photographer of Armenian- Georgian descent, in Iran during the reign of the Qajar dynasty. Early life Born into a Russian family of Armenian- Geo ...

and the Persian Image" (2001), "The Adventures of

Hamza The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...

" (2002), "Style and Status: Imperial Costumes From Ottoman Turkey" (2005), "Facing East: Portraits from Asia" (2006), " Falnama: The Book of Omens" (2009), and "The Art of

Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art" (2016–2017).

Publications

* * * * * *

References

Living people Date of birth missing (living people) American curators American women art historians American art historians Harvard University alumni Smithsonian Institution people American Iranologists American Turkologists American Islamic studies scholars Year of birth missing (living people) Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian curators Iranian art curators {{Art-historian-stub

Biography

Publications

See also

References