Manoucher Yektai

Iranian/American, 1922-2019

Manoucher Yektai was an Iranian-American painter and poet whose career bridged cultures, continents, and artistic movements. Born in Tehran, he studied literature and art at Tehran University before moving to Paris, where he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and the atelier of André Lhote. In the mid-1940s, he relocated to New York City, continuing his studies at the Art Students League and embedding himself in the city’s dynamic postwar art scene. This trajectory—Tehran to Paris to New York—shaped a vision that was both international and deeply personal.

Yektai’s paintings are marked by gestural brushwork, vivid color, and a layered, tactile surface. He worked in a space between abstraction and figuration, often depicting still lifes, landscapes, and portraits with an expressive energy. Laying his canvases flat on the studio floor, he approached paint as a physical material, building up dense compositions that reflect both spontaneity and structure. Though often associated with Abstract Expressionism and the New York School, Yektai maintained a distinct voice, one rooted in an enduring connection to his Persian cultural heritage.

Over the course of his career, Yektai exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and Iran, with works entering the collections of major museums and institutions. He remained a committed poet as well as a painter, often noting the parallel impulses between writing and visual expression. Today, his work continues to resonate with viewers for its combination of Eastern and Western expression.