Noor Soussi
Head of Department
Lot 63
Parviz Tanavoli(Iran, born 1937)Heech Lovers
25 November 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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Nima Sagharchi
Group Head
Lylia Hafiz
Sale Coordinator
Parviz Tanavoli (Iran, born 1937)
Heech Lovers
fibreglass
signed "Parviz", dated "07" and numbered "7/10", number 7 from an edition of 10, executed in 2007
105 x 65cm (41 5/16 x 25 9/16in).
fibreglass
signed "Parviz", dated "07" and numbered "7/10", number 7 from an edition of 10, executed in 2007
105 x 65cm (41 5/16 x 25 9/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance:
Property from a private collection, London
"If the astonishing resemblance between a Heech and a human-being did not exist, I would have never involved myself in making it"- Parviz Tanavoli
In 1965, Tanavoli protested against the empty overuse of traditional forms and gave new depth to the two dimensional calligraphy on paper by transforming it into three dimensional 'Heech' sculptures. His signature Heech sculptures are composed of three Farsi letters in the Persian calligraphic style of 'nastaliq'.
With its elegant curvilinear shape and hollow eyes, the Heech is anthropomorphised, gazing playfully at its viewers. This is a fine example in fibreglass; a medium he embraced throughout his career and through which he found great versatility in form and freedom of expression.
To Tanavoli, the concept of nothingness has multiple layers of meanings and is not an expression of despair and hopelessness. One interpretation relates to Persian Sufism, in which nothing is an aspect of God, who creates everything from nothing. Tanavoli's nothingness permeates everything, it is an animating and creative force; it is the nothingness that precedes creation, the nothingness out of which we are born, from which ideas come to life and out of which bonds are formed.