Lion and Sword II

Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East
© Parviz Tanavoli
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
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Lion and Sword II

1975
Textiles
Bijar weave
52 13/16 × 78 11/16 in. (134.11 × 199.9 cm)
Gift of Hope Warschaw through the 2018 Collectors Committee (M.2018.118.2)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
Parviz Tanavoli has a long-standing fascination with lions, which he has rendered in a variety of media and forms. He began collecting tribal rugs decorated with lions in the early 1970s, and these inspired some of his own work. Here, the combination of lion and sword, which became a state symbol of first the Qajar dynasty and subsequently Pahlavi Iran, also has strong Shi‘ite connotations, as both lion and sword are associated with Imam Ali.
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Bibliography

  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.
  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.
  • Balaghi, Shiva. "Mining the Past." Canvas 14, no.4 (2018): 114-117.
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