Deeply contemplative while disquietingly poignant, the present lot embodies the spiritual immediacy and private truths unearthed in Y.Z. Kami’s revered portraiture. Born in 1956 to a Shia family in Iran, the artist’s thematic underpinnings of spirituality and religion are made accessible in the repurposed personal photographs from his childhood in Tehran. In Self-Portrait as a Child, Kami’s younger self shares a piercing gaze with us, as he is flanked by a window into a highly impersonal genre scene which tempers any familial warmth. The profound dichotomy of these two elements, depicted across four panels, indicate Kami’s acute understanding of the shortcomings inherent to portraiture—yet its towering scale unequivocally implores us to reflect upon the unseen dimensions of our lives. Importantly, the sister painting, only marginally larger than the present lot, resides in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim.