Manoucher Yektai (1921-2019) was an American Iranian painter and poet whose unique vision bridged Eastern and Western artistic traditions. Born in Tehran, Yektai left Iran in the 1940s to pursue formal art training in Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and under the influential painter Fernand Léger. His time is Paris immersed him in the avant-garde circles of post-war Europe, where he encountered modernist ideas that would inform his later work. However, it was his move to New York City in the late 1940s that catalyzed his transformation as an artist and positioned him withing one of the most important art movements of the 20th century: Abstract Expressionism.



Arriving in New York at a time when the city was rapidly becoming the center of the art world, Yektai entered a dynamic, experimental scene dominated by bold painters seeking to redefine the nature of painting. He soon became part of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists, developing a painterly language marked by thick impasto, gestural brushwork, and a vibrant palette. Despite his outsider status as an Iranian immigrant, Yektai’s deeply personal and poetic approach earned him a respected place among American artists.



Yektai developed friendships with several key figures of the movement, including Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. However, it was his decades-long friendship with Willem de Kooning that was especially significant. Both artists shared a love for the physicality of paint and a commitment to the emotional immediacy of abstraction. De Kooning’s influence is visible in Yektai’s dynamic surfaces and energetic compositions, but Yektai maintained a distinct voice, often infusing his paintings with a lyrical sensibility rooted in his Persian heritage.



A prime example of his mature style is Landscape at Bridgehampton, 1965, a brilliant painting that captures both the physicality of nature and the vitality of paint itself. Rendered in bold colors and heavy expressive brushstrokes, the work evokes the landscape of Long Island not through literal depiction, by through sensation and movement. The painting’s thick texture and explosive energy reflect Yektai’s belief in painting as a living process – a spontaneous, tactile engagement with both canvas and memory. Manoucher Yektai’s work stands as a testament to the power of cross-cultural exchange in art, as a bridge between Iran and America, tradition and innovation, her forged a unique path in Abstract Expressionism, enriching the movement with his singular perspective and fearless brush.