Farideh Lashai (Iran, 1944-2013) was one of the most admired painters in her country and the Middle East. Her work is directly related to Persian culture, especially to miniatures and the Iranian calligraphic tradition. Her oeuvre is the result of a seamless combination of Eastern culture with her studies of Germanic literature in Frankfurt. This duality results in a very specific aesthetic, providing a profoundly philosophical depth to the themes of her work, which are frequently both political and literary.