Manoucher Yektai: Landscapes

Lyrical landscapes are rendered in liberal swaths of impasto in Yektai’s soft yet dynamic paintings

Iranian American artist and poet Manoucher Yektai (1921–2019) was a founding member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. His practice was shaped by his interactions with de Kooning, Pollock and Rothko as much as by Iranian modernism. This second monograph on the understudied midcentury artist spans works from what he called his Body of Landscape series, including brushy, vibrant depictions of Positano, Italy and views of 95th Street in Manhattan. As poet James Schuyler wrote of this series in 1959: “Nothing is literally described but all is there: openness, greenness, the pink and wrecked look of New York as it often shows itself nowadays, Berlin-on-Hudson, glamorous and condemned.” This volume features a plate section that highlights the lushness of Yektai’s signature impastos, as well as essays by Suzanne Hudson and Paul Galvez.