Leyly Matine-Daftary


Leyly Matine-Daftary was an Iranian modernist artist and art educator. She was based in both Tehran and Paris. Matine-Daftary was best known for her flat paintings that highlighted simplicity but still expressed emotions.

Biography

Marzieh Leyly Matine-Daftary was born on the 19 January 1937 in Tehran, Imperial State of Iran. The only daughter of Ahmad Matin-Daftari and Mansoureh Mossadegh, her mother was the daughter of the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh and Zia al-Saltaneh.
Matine-Daftarys paternal grandparents were Showkat ad-Dowleh and Mirza Mahmud-Khan Ain ul-Mamalek. Because Showkat ad-Dowleh was the half-sister of Mossadegh, Matine-Daftarys parents were first cousins. Matine-Daftarys father was thrown in prison after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran by the Allies in 1941 because of his German connections.
In 1953, Matine-Daftarys grandfather, Mossadegh was deposed in a coup.
Matine-Daftary was a close friend of Farah Diba. There was a family connection because the third marriage of great-grand grandmother (Najm al-Saltaneh of Matine-Daftary had been to a Diba.

Education

After completing her elementary education in Tehran, Matine-Daftary was at the age of ten sent to England where she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College. She obtained a Fine Arts degree from the Slade School of Fine Art before returning to Tehran in the late 1950s.

Artistic Career

From 1960 until 1956 Matine-Daftary lectured on sculpture and sculpting at the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University. Matine-Daftary was involved in the early Tehran Biennial and in the Shiraz Arts Festival, for which she created iconic identifying materials.

Marriage

In 1961, Matine-Daftary married her first cousin twice removed, Kaveh Farmanfarmaian, i. Farmanfarmaian was a business man and was the founder of a number of corporations, such as Bank of Industry and Mining. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter before divorcing.
After her divorce Matine-Daftary divided her time between Paris and her house in the Ferdows Gardens,in Tehran.

Death

Matine-Daftary died in Paris on 17 April 2007.

Exhibitions