Parviz Tanavoliwas born in 1937. He is a sculptor who is one of the founders of the “Sagha Khane” movement in Iran. He invented a new type of sculpture in modern Iranian art. By combining Western modernity with ancient Iranian symbols, he was able to display a symbolic combination of his art.
After spending a three-year sculpture course at the Tehran Academy of Fine Arts, He went to Italy in 1956 to continue his studies and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kara. After returning to Iran, he held two exhibitions of his designs and engravings. Holding these two exhibitions led Tanavoli to receive a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture to continue his studies in Italy and to return to this country.
Tanavoli established his first studio called “Kaboud” in 1961, which at that time had become one of the most important cultural and artistic centers in Tehran. During this period of his career, he was looking for any place that had a tint of ancient Iranian culture and tradition to collect and get ideas to create his works.
Tanavoli's works are generally classified into four main sections: “poet”, “wall”, “nothing” and “lovers”. All four themes have the authenticity of the culture of Iranian objects and Iranian mystical literature. The “nothing” sculptures are among the most famous and, of course, the most numerous of Tanavoli's works. "Nothing" was able to attract the most attention and criticism inside and outside Iran.
Tanavoli's works have been showcased in several exhibitions and some of them in the most important museums in the world, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Ludwig Aachen Museum, the Vienna Museum of Modern Art and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
"After all, when an artist creates a work, he builds it based on his mental world," he says of the mood of his work. Let me tell you one thing, you can never understand the secrets of an artist. "Never, because when an artist creates a work, he has a combination of different concepts in mind, based on which he presents a work."