Neshat Shirin

Life and work

Shirin Neshat was born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran, and moved to the United States as a teenager, eventually settling in New York. She works across still photography, video and film, and built her international reputation in the 1990s with Women of Allah, a series of black and white photographs that combine portraiture with handwritten Farsi text. In 1999 she received the International Award of the Venice Biennale for the video works Turbulent and Rapture, and she later directed the feature film Women Without Men, extending her practice from the gallery into cinema.

Her work has been the subject of major museum surveys, including a retrospective at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2013 and a three decade survey organized by The Broad that traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2021. Fotografiska Stockholm presented her series The Fury in 2023, and Gladstone Gallery, which represents her, showed the photographic and film project Land of Dreams in New York in 2021. Across these venues her recurring subjects are exile, the female body and the aftermath of political upheaval in Iran and beyond.

Editions and unique works

Neshat's saleroom presence divides mainly between still photography and moving image work. The photographs, most often gelatin silver, cibachrome or archival pigment prints from series such as Women of Allah, Rapture and Our House Is on Fire, circulate as numbered editions rather than unique sheets, and edition size varies considerably from series to series. Her video and film works are likewise sold as limited editions rather than as a single object, with the edition number and the format of delivery forming part of what a buyer acquires. LLB Auction has itself sold five lots by the artist, a photographic market where paper size, hand applied ink and edition number weigh more heavily on price than they would for a unique painting or sculpture.

What a specialist examines

A specialist reviewing a Neshat photograph first confirms the medium exactly as printed, since gelatin silver, cibachrome and archival pigment prints from different series are treated differently by the market. The signature, date and edition number are typically inscribed in ink on the reverse of the sheet, and several works from Women of Allah carry Farsi calligraphy applied by hand directly onto the photographic surface, so that ink work is examined as closely as the image itself for fading or damage. Provenance is traced back to the gallery of first sale, most often Gladstone Gallery or an earlier representative, and cross checked against the exhibition history, including the venues listed under Career. For video and film works, the edition number within its stated total and the completeness of the delivered format, whether film, video file or installation components, are confirmed before a sale. The body that can be consulted on a specific work's history is the one listed under Career.

Market position

At auction, Neshat's photographs have traded steadily across the last decade. Bonhams sold Rapture Series (Women in a Line) for GBP 16,250 in 2014 and Faezeh for GBP 31,250 in 2015, both in London. Phillips sold Untitled from Rapture for USD 5,670 in New York in 2021, and Fervor for GBP 35,280 in London in 2022. Bonhams then sold Rebellious Silence from Women of Allah for USD 12,800 in New York in 2024, and Sayed from Our House Is on Fire for USD 5,632 in 2025. These results, spanning three decades of her practice, show a market anchored in her photographic editions and concentrated at Bonhams and Phillips, the houses named under Career alongside her museum history.

Preparing a valuation request

A seller preparing to consign a Neshat photograph should gather the original invoice or gallery receipt, any documented link between the specific print and an exhibition or publication, and clear photographs of the front, the signature and inscriptions on the reverse, including any ink calligraphy where present. The exact medium, sheet size and edition number should be recorded, together with a condition report noting fading, foxing or damage to hand applied ink or to the mount. For a video or film work, the format of delivery and the edition number within its stated total matter as much as the image itself. A complete paper trail of this kind allows a specialist to place the work correctly against the results and venues described above and to prepare an accurate assessment without delay.