NOW AND TEN

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PARVIZ TANAVOLI
(IRANIAN, B. 1937)
Heech Lovers
incised with artist’s signature, date and number ‘Parviz, 07, 3/6’
(on the base)
bronze
70√ x 48 x 30æin. (180 x 122 x 78cm.)
Executed in 2007, this work is number three from an edition of six
US$300,000-400,000
AED1,100,000-1,500,000
EXHIBITED:
Dubai, Meem Gallery, Parviz Tanavoli and Abbas Kiarostami, 2009-2010
(another from the edition exhibited).
Tehran, 10Gallery, Works of Parviz Tanavoli: Heech, 2011
(another from the edition exhibited; illustrated, p. 41).
Wellesley, The Davis Museum Wellesley College, Parviz Tanavoli, 2015
(another from the edition exhibited; illustrated in colour, pp. 90-91).
LITERATURE:
C. Pocock, Parviz Tanavoli Monograph, Dubai 2010
(illustrated in colour, p. 96; illustrated, pp. 64 & 539).
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 1970s-2011: Works from the Artist’s Collection
Parviz Tanavoli Poet in Love, exh. cat., London 2011, no. 38
(illustrated in colour, unpaged).
A. Smith, “Iran’s most celebrated visual artist, Parviz Tanavoli,
speaks to MEMO about his work”, in The Middle East Monitor,
3 February 2015 (accessed online).
G. Harris, “Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli’s solo US show”,
in Financial Times, 6 February 2015 (accessed online).
S. Smee, “Iranian artist Tanavoli in the spotlight at Davis Museum”,
in Boston Globe, 21 February 2015 (accessed online).
A. Shea, “Father of Modern Iranian Sculpture gets First U.S. Show
in Nearly 40 Years”, in National Public Radio, 8 May 2015
(accessed online).
‘I was fed up with artists misusing calligraphy in painting... So I decided to
make something of nothing... Poets, such as [the 13th-century Iranian mystic]
Rumi, draw attention to ‘nothing’ centuries before me. There are things and
‘no things’, they balance each other... It’s a simple shape, it’s abstract and
it’s very meaningful. It has a sculptural body diferent than any other known
sculptural fgures. I think there are many reasons why it became popular.’
(The artist quoted in A. Smith, “Iran’s most celebrated artist, Parviz Tanavoli, speaks to MEMO about his work”, in The Middle East
Monitor, 3 February 2015, accessed online).
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