Layla S. Diba

Layla Soudavar Diba (Persian: لیلا سودآور-دیبا) is an Iranian-American independent scholar[1] and curator, specializing in 18th/19th-century and contemporary Persian art and the Qajar period. She has curated of various exhibitions, such as the Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1783-1925 (1998-1999) exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and co-curated Iran Modern (2013) at New York’s Asia Society.[2][3]

Layla Diba in a Qajar art conference at Louvre Museum, 2018
Firman [royal mandate] of Persian king Muhammad Shah Qajar, Gift of Layla S. Diba, in memory of Mahmood T. Diba, to Metropolitan Art Museum

Early life and education

She was born as Layla Soudavar in an Iranian-American family. She is related to Farah (née Diba) Pahlavi, the former Queen of Iran.[4]

Layla S. Diba holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (NYU).

Career

Tehran

From 1973 to 1975, Diba was an art advisor for the Private Secretariat of HM Queen Farah Pahlavi of Iran.[5][6]

From 1975 to 1979, Layla Diba was the founding director of Negārestān Museum (Persian: موزه نگارستان), a public collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century Iranian painting, based in Tehran, Iran.[6] She was the first woman museum director in Iran. The museum was shut down during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The Negarestan Museum was established by Queen Farah Pahlavi to promote the Persian art of the 18th and 19th-century.[2]

New York City

Layla Diba served as the associate curator and of Asian Art and as a curator of Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum.[7][8] She has been an art advisor of various organizations such as, the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. She is a member of Encyclopædia Iranica's board of trustees[9] and the Soudavar Memorial Foundation.

In December 2009, she held the role "scholar-in-residence" at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.[10]

Iran Modern (2013)

In 2013, Layla S. Diba and Fereshteh Daftari co-curated the exhibition, Iran Modern (2013) shown at the Asia Society in New York.[11] The exhibition was the first major exhibition of modern art from Iran, featuring 26 artists which included Ahmad Aali, Abbas, Massoud Arabshahi, Siah Armajani, Mohammad Ehsai, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Mansour Ghandriz, Marcos Grigorian, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Nahid Hagigat, Bahman Jalali, Rana Javadi, Reza Mafi, Leyly Matine-Daftary, Ardeshir Mohassess, Bahman Mohassess, Nicky Nodjoumi, Houshang Pezeshknia, Faramarz Pilaram, Behjat Sadr, Abolghassem Saidi, Sohrab Sepehri, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam, Manoucher Yektai, and Hossein Zenderoudi.[12] The exhibition covered from 1948 until 1977, and was divided into sections including Saqqakhaneh and neotraditional art styles influenced by folk art history, abstract art, and calligraphy.[12][13]

Personal life

She was married to the businessman Mahmoud T. Diba, who was among the victims of Swissair Flight 111 crash in 1998.[14][15] Diba has a son. She currently lives in New York City, New York.

Publications
  • Diba, Layla S. (1994). Lacquerwork of Safavid Persia and Its Relationship to Persian Painting: Text. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
  • Diba, Layla S.; Ekhtiar, Maryam; Tauris, I. B. (1998). Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925. Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art. ISBN 9781860642562.
  • Amanat, Abbas; Balaghi, Shiva; Behdad, Ali; Diba, Layla S.; Ekhtiar, Maryam; Grabar, Oleg; Luft, Paul; Najmabadi, Afsaneh; Scarce, Jennifer M. (2001). Re-presenting the Qajars: new research in the study of 19th-century Iran. Iranian studies. 34. Priscilla Parsons Soucek, Heidi Walcher, Ehsan Yar-Shater. Society for Iranian Studies.
  • Journey Through Asia: Masterpieces in the Brooklyn Museum of Art; with Amy G. Poster. Brooklyn Museum Bookshop, 2003.
  • Diba, Layla S. (2011). Turkmen Jewelry: Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection. Stefano Carboni, Jean-François de Lapérouse. New York City, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9781588394156.
  • Iran Modern (Co-Editor with Fereshteh Daftari). Asia Society Museum, New York, 2013

See also

References
  1. Cotter, Holland (2013-09-05). "Modernism Blooming in Iran". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-08. Fereshteh Daftari and Layla S. Diba, both independent scholars
  2. "Royal Persian Paintings, The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925". Brooklyn. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  3. Russeth, Andrew (2015-04-02). "Arab Spring: Modern Middle Eastern Art Finds a New Audience in the West". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  4. Colacello, Bob (2014-01-08). "Farah Pahlavi". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-08. We talked over tea at the apartment of her cousin Layla Diba, the former curator of Islamic art at the Brooklyn Museum
  5. "webcasts captions". Library of Congress. 2017. Negarestan Museum in Tehran from 75 to 79. Arts advisor for the private secretariat of Her Majesty Queen Farah Diba, and the Hagop Kevorkian curator of Islamic art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In 2006, Dr. Diba was invited to develop programming and strategy for the future of the Guggenheim's Abu Dhabi Museum and to serve on the museum's Asian Art Council and the Middle East focus group.
  6. "An Interview with Layla Diba". FIS. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  7. Cotter, Holland (1996-11-29). "Of Beauty Beneath The Feet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  8. Cotter, Holland (1998-10-23). "ART REVIEW; Dazzling Images Delineate a World That Never Was". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-08. The Brooklyn show, organized by Layla S. Diba, the museum's curator of Islamic art
  9. "Iranica board of Trustees". Iranica. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  10. "Layla S. Diba". Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design. 2009. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  11. Makarechi, Kia (2012-01-05). "PHOTOS: You've Never Seen Jewelry Like This". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  12. "'Iran Modern' - The First Major Exhibition of Iranian Modern Art (1950-1970)". Islamic Arts Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  13. "Iran's Reinvention Through Modern Art". Hyperallergic. 2014-01-04. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  14. "Swissair crash victims". CNN. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  15. "Paid Notice: Deaths DIBA, MAHMOUD". The New York Times. 1998-09-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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