Lot 466 R

The Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli whose work is presented in renowned Museums world-wide is considered a pioneer of contemporary sculpture in his home country. Since 1965, sculptures in differing executions, sizes and colour variants were created under the title of Heech (Iranian for 'nothing'). The sculptural work is formed by the combination of the calligraphic characters for he, ye and c, which make up the word 'Heech' in the Iranian official language Farsi. The artist describes the immense influence of these works on his oeuvre as follows: „Heech is in everything and everything is in heech, and yet what makes heech so mystical is its closeness to God. While I worked on those sculptures I was so surrounded by the power of heech that I saw a heech in everything, and never in my life was I in such state of astonishment for all the beautiful thing I was seeing through heech. I must admit that I had never before worked with so much love and hope. It filled every minute of my time, and for the four or five years since then, the spirit of heech has followed me in all my other work.“ (Parviz Tanavoli, Fifteen Years of Bronze Sculptures, New York, 1976, p.17).