Manoucher Yektai

Manoucher Yektai was born in Tehran, Iran in 1921 to Persian parents. He dedicated himself as a painter at the early age of eighteen. Yektai studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Atelier of André Lhote in Paris, as well as at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Hale. Yektai was a founding member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, and his style was defined by a painterly impasto bordering naturalism and abstraction. His style was influenced by his abstract peers, especially Pollock, de Kooning, Kline and Rothko. Yektai’s solo show at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery in 1950 was historic, as it was the first time an Iranian born artist had ever had a show outside of Iran. Yektai maintained close friendships with Rothko, Kline, de Kooning, Guston, and Motherwell. His work can be found in the collections of MoMA, Whitney, Hirshhorn Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Yellowstone Art Museum.