Orient and Occident: the life’s work of the Iranian-German female painter Akefeh Monchi-Zadeh (von Koerber). Delicate Persian miniatures and large-scale charcoal drawings: her art was as rich in contrast as her life.
The Orient and the Occident have shaped the artistic work of Akefeh von Koerber (Akefeh Monchi-Zadeh). At the age of 22 she came from Iran to Germany to study art. The world of Persian miniatures from her homeland as well as her wartime experiences in Germany are reflected in the strong contrasts of themes and painting styles that accompanied her throughout her life. The following poem is her self-chosen motto for her work and her life:
All human beings are members of one frame,
Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain
The other limbs at rest cannot remain.
If thou feel not for other’s misery
A human being is no name for thee.
Sa’adi (1190-1291)
