Sadeq Tabrizi’s rarely-seen artwork offered at Bonhams

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- A rarely-seen artwork by Sadeq Tabrizi, a pioneer of calligraphic-painting in Iran, has been put on sale at the Bonhams auction in London set for November 24.

A selection of 115 works by famous artists of West Asia is offered at the Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern (West Asian) Art.

Entitled “Saqqakhaneh”, the artwork is one of Tabrizi’s Saqakhaneh series selected from his collection of Ehsan Yarshater offered at £2500 to 3500.

Tabrizi was an influential figure in the formation of the Saqqakhaneh School, a neo-traditional style of art that derives inspiration from Iranian folk art and culture.

Iranian scholar Yarshater spent all his life creating his magnum opus, Encyclopedia Iranica, a complete encyclopedia of Iranian culture and history. 

Yarshater was a professor and the founder of the Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University in New York.  He was born in Hamedan in 1920, and earned a Ph.D. in Persian language and literature at the University of Tehran in 1947. He then moved to England to pursue his studies at London University, where he received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Old and Middle Iranian in 1960.

Tabrizi died in London in 2017 at the age of 79. He was suffering from liver cancer and was in London to receive further treatment.

For the first time in 1959, Sadeqi painted and inscribed some illegible words on a ceramic panel, which some experts believe to have been his first calligraphic-painting.

Also among the highlights offered at the Bonhams auction are a calligraphic-painting by Mohammad Ehsai named “Yazdan” offered at £40,000 to 60,000 and a painting by Hossein Zendehrudi “LA+LA+SAR” offered at £120,000 to 180,000.

Bonhams has maintained a significant international presence in the market since the early years of its development. During their inaugural sale of modern West Asian art in Dubai in 2008, Bonhams broke 33 world records and witnessed the first West Asian artwork to achieve an auction sale of over one million dollars; Farhad Moshiri’s stunning mixed media work “Eshq” (Love).

Since then, Bonhams has firmly established itself as one of the leading auction houses in the category, holding regular bi-annual sales first in Dubai and now in London, in recognition of the growing international market for art from West Asia and surrounding regions.

source: Tehran Times