The Key

Nahid Hagigat

1973 · Photo etching · Islamic Art

Nahid Hagigat’s prints give insight into the conditions of women in Iran during the years leading up to the Revolution. This photo-etching incorporates elements that evoke the climate of repression and suspicion that permeated society in the mid-1970s: a rope, a key, and a woman set against a dark background. In the late 1960s, Hagigat had studied printmaking in New York, and continued using it upon her return to Iran in the early 1970s. A relatively unknown medium in Iran, printmaking became the ideal mode for Hagigat to express her politically charged messages.

Artist

Nahid Hagigat

Date

1973

Medium

Photo etching

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Purchase, 2012 NoRuz at The Met Benefit, 2014