FAHRELNISSA ZEID AT TATE MODERN

This summer, Tate Modern will present the UK’s first retrospective of Fahrelnissa Zeid (b. 1901, Istanbul, d. 1991, Amman), reappraising her work in an international context. Zeid was a pioneering artist best known for her large-scale, colourful canvases – some over 5 metres wide – fusing European approaches to abstract art with Byzantine, Islamic and Persian influences.

This major exhibition will bring together paintings, drawings and sculptures spanning over 40 years – from expressionist works made in Istanbul in the early 1940s, to immersive abstract canvases exhibited in London, Paris and New York in the 1950s and 1960s, finishing with her return to portraiture later in life. Celebrating her extraordinary career, Tate Modern will reveal Zeid as an important figure in the international story of abstract art.

Fahrelnissa Zeid, Resolved Problems, 1948
Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Collection, Eczacıbaşı Group Donation (Istanbul, Turkey) © Istanbul Museum of Modern Art © Raad Zeid Al-Hussein