FAHRELNISSA ZEID

Fahrelnissa Zeid (b. 1901, Istanbul; d. 1991, Amman) was one of the pioneering figures of twentieth-century modernism. Over an international career spanning more than five decades, she lived and worked between Istanbul, Paris, London and Amman. Born into a distinguished Ottoman family in Istanbul, Zeid studied at the Academy of Fine Arts before continuing her education in 1924 at Académie Ranson, Atelier Bissière in Paris, where her encounter with the European avant-garde proved formative in the development of her distinctive visual language. She joined the avant-garde d Group in 1942 and later became associated with the Nouvelle École de Paris. In 1954, she became the first woman artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. After relocating to Amman in 1975, she founded the Fahrelnissa Zeid Institute of Fine Arts. Throughout her career, she participated in more than fifty exhibitions and biennials across Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Her work was featured in exhibitions at Dirimart, including Immersion, Dirimart London, London (2026); Would you still love me if I painted parrots all day?, Dirimart Dolapdere, Istanbul (2022); Portraits, Dirimart İstinyePark İzmir, İzmir (2021–22); A Three-Character Play, Dirimart Dolapdere, Istanbul (2020); Ode to Passion, Dirimart Dolapdere, Istanbul (2018); and FAHRELNISSA ZEID, Dirimart Nişantaşı, Istanbul (2014–15). Her works are also held in major museum collections including Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Institut du Monde Arabe, Istanbul Modern, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and Tate. In recent years, her work has been reassessed as central to the history of global modernism through major exhibitions including the retrospective at Tate Modern and Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle (2017), as well as presentations at Haus der Kunst (2016), Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (2012), Martin-Gropius-Bau (2009), Istanbul Modern (2006), Darat al Funun (2001) and the Royal Cultural Center (1983).