Fereydoun Hoveyda, (Iran, 1924-2006)

Calligraphic Ballet

Calligraphic Ballet
mixed media on paper arranged on board, framed
executed in 1977, Bodley gallery label on the verso
100 x 100cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8in).

Provenance:
Property from the estate of a distinguished Iranian academic, California

TWO RARE AND EXQUISITE COMPOSITIONS BY THE IRANIAN ARTIST AND DIPLOMAT FEREYDOUN HOVEYDA

"Hoveyda combines his literary sensitivity, his cinematic instinct, and his international experience, to create images that are beautiful, perceptive, and funny." – Andy Warhol

Exhibited:
Bodley Gallery, 1063 Madison Avenue, New York, 1979

Fereydoun Hoveyda was a man of unusual versatility, equally at ease in the worlds of international politics and the arts. The present works are superlative examples from his mature work, exhibited at New Yorks fabled Bodley Gallery, with direct reference to the exhibition made in Andy Warhol's own diary from the period

He served as Iran's ambassador to the U.N. from 1971 to 1979, the year his brother, former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, was executed after Iran's Islamic revolution. After leaving the Iranian foreign service, Hoveyda became a senior fellow at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

Hoveyda was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1924. He earned a doctorate in international law and economics from the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1948 he participated in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From 1952 to 1966 Hoveyda worked in UNESCO's mass communications department. In 1965, his brother became prime minister of Iran; the next year Fereydoun Hoveyda became Iran's deputy foreign minister in charge of international organizations.

Hoveyda was deeply embedded in the international art community and acted as the liaison when Andy Warhol visited Iran 1976, forming a lasting freindship with the artist. Hoveyda was a founding contributor of Cahiers du Cinema, the influential French film magazine. He also wrote the screenplay for Roberto Rossellini's 1959 film "India."