"Pink Heech" by Parviz Tanavoli

Parviz Tanavoli with a HEECH in the background 

Born in 1937 in Tehran, Iran, Parviz Tanavoli is one of Iran's most renowned and successful artists. Parvis studied at the Tehran School of Arts, the Academia di Belle Arti in Carrara and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy. Parviz was one of the founding members of Saqqakhaneh, an artistic movement which began in the early 1960's in Iran. He was the Head of the Sculpting Department at Tehran University until 1979; he was also part of the faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Hamline University in St Paul Minnesota. He has now retired from teaching, living and working between Vancouver and Tehran.

Parviz has exhibited in numerous museums and art galleries around the world and his works feature in numerous public and private collections, such as permanent collections of major museums including: the British Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; New York University Art Collection; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Museum of Modern Art, Vienna; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran.

 

Heech

Composed of three Farsi characters, the single word heech literally translates to "nothing". This term haunts the modern man and reflects feelings of unworthiness, of frustration and of powerlessness that permeate so much of the writing of contemporary literature.

Parviz's use of the heech underscores the transforming power of his art. In the West, existentialist convention prods us to read "nothingness" as a synonym for despair; but the heech in Tanavoli's work is more synonymous with creativity itself: it is the void filled by the artist's imagination, the "nothing" that through his shaping hand becomes "something". Mysticism enhances Tanavoli's fascination with the heech, but, as he himself acknowledges, he was also drawn to its calligraphic shape because of its resemblance to the human body. If the word itself suggests melancholy, Tanavoli's heech sculptures are joyful works. They stand, sit or recline as sensuously eloquent reminders of the plastic nature of Persian calligraphy. (From Candlestar)