Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s collages, such as CG8 (1982), in which a series of butterflies float amid interlocking shapes and hues of rose and dusky blue, are one of the lesser known aspects of this legendary artist’s practice. Farmanfarmaian produced her first collage in New York, where she lived in exile following the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution at the end of the 1970s. This body of work was triggered by repairs to the terrace of her then apartment on Fifth Avenue. She watched workers putting netting over the asphalt. Struck by the fabric’s beauty, she asked for a piece and began tinkering with bits of newspapers and magazines on cardboard, covering the composition with her new-found material.