Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1921, Manoucher Yektai (1921–2019) was a painter and poet whose work bridged Persian culture and postwar American modernism. Among the first generation of Iranian artists to pursue a modern artistic education abroad, he left Iran in the mid-1940s intending to study in Paris, but first arrived in New York, where he encountered the emerging energy of the New York School. He studied with Amédée Ozenfant and at the Art Students League before continuing to Paris and the École des Beaux-Arts. He returned to New York in 1947 at a pivotal moment in the development of Abstract Expressionism.

Yektai quickly became part of New York’s artistic community. Through Milton Avery he was introduced to Grace Borgenicht Gallery, where he held a series of solo exhibitions in the early 1950s. Leo Castelli later introduced him to the Eighth Street Club, and he developed relationships with artists including Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, and others associated with the New York School. His work was championed by critics including John Ashbery, Harold Rosenberg, Dore Ashton, and Fairfield Porter.

Though frequently associated with Abstract Expressionism, Yektai maintained an independent artistic position. His paintings combined the material force and freedom of postwar abstraction with sustained engagement in still life, landscape, and portraiture. Working with heavily layered impasto, vivid color, and unconventional methods of applying paint, he developed a distinctive visual language that remained rooted in observation while expanding the possibilities of representation. Alongside his painting practice, he wrote poetry in Persian throughout his life, maintaining a parallel literary practice that remained deeply connected to his Persian cultural roots.

Yektai presented numerous solo exhibitions throughout his career, notably at Grace Borgenicht Gallery in the early 1950s, Poindexter Gallery, Piccadilly Gallery, Semia Huber Gallery, and Elaine Benson Gallery. Important institutional presentations included a solo exhibition at the Musée de Cannes in 1963 and the retrospective Paintings 1951–1997 at Guild Hall in 1998. More recently, his work was the subject of exhibitions at Karma in 2021 and 2024, as well as The Night Is Your Day at Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery in 2019.

Works by Yektai are held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Guild Hall.