Farah Pahlavi

Farah Pahlavi, identified in Andy Warhol’s diary as the Empress of Iran and the queen, is seen in two sharply contrasting settings: a luncheon disrupted by demonstrators and a quieter encounter at the Iranian embassy, where she posed beside her Warhol portrait. Together, the episodes show her managing public attention while also locating her image within the artist’s portrait practice and the visible status of his subjects.

The Empress at a Contested Luncheon

On July 7, 1977, Andy Warhol and Bob Colacello went to The Pierre for a luncheon honoring Farah Pahlavi. Demonstrators had gathered outside; Warhol described them as masked and found their presence frightening. He and Bob were admitted to the receiving line, where Farah Pahlavi greeted guests alongside other officials. The ceremony’s formal welcome was therefore set against a visible protest beyond the hotel doors.

The interruption came during her prepared speech. A woman in a green dress stood up from the press section and denounced her, and security removed the protester. Farah Pahlavi continued reading, then apologized to the guests for the noise and demonstrations surrounding her visit. She explained that women’s rights in Iran might appear modest from an American perspective but represented significant steps within Iran. The diary records her answer in the immediate aftermath of a public challenge: rather than abandon the prepared address, she used it to place the issue in a different national context.

The Portrait at the Iranian Embassy

Later, Warhol visited the Iranian embassy, where there were no demonstrators outside. Farah Pahlavi posed with him in front of her portrait. In the same encounter, she said she was jealous of Amir Abbas Hoveyda because he had eight Warhols while she had four. The comparison makes the portraits more than background decoration: their number registers the standing of Warhol’s work within the circle of people gathered around the Iranian court, while her own remark places her among its collectors and subjects.

The embassy scene also contrasts with the luncheon. At The Pierre, her public appearance was interrupted by protest and followed by an explanation of political circumstances; at the embassy, the diary centers on a portrait, a photograph, and a comparison between collections. Warhol’s brief note that Farah Pahlavi was taller than he was adds a small physical detail to an encounter otherwise organized around their shared position before the image.

Portraiture and Public Image

The portrait belonged to a practice central to Warhol’s work and income. His usual process began with about sixty Polaroid photographs taken with a Polaroid Big Shot; he selected a small number for screen printing, chose and cropped a final image, and cosmetically adjusted it before producing a silkscreen. He then combined the screened photographic image with colored areas prepared on canvas, where slight differences in alignment created the portraits’ characteristic shifting effect. The diary does not specify which steps were used for Farah Pahlavi’s portrait, but her appearance beside it at the embassy places her within this larger system of selecting, retouching, reproducing, and displaying likenesses.

Warhol’s record gives Farah Pahlavi no extended biography or account of her private life. Instead, it preserves a few consequential public details: her title, her response to a protest, her explanation of women’s rights in Iran, and her own comparison of the four Warhol portraits she possessed with Hoveyda’s eight. The result is a compact portrait of a public figure seen through the settings that shaped her visibility—official reception, political scrutiny, and the artist’s mediated image.