Poet and Bird
- Artist: Parviz Tanavoli
- Date: 1974
- Medium: Screenprint on paper
- Dimensions: image: 500 × 700 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Poet and Bird” by Parviz Tanavoli. It was made in 1974 as a screenprint on paper, about 500 mm tall by 700 mm wide. Tanavoli had just come back to Iran after years in Europe, and he found the country wasn’t very receptive to western figurative art. So he started blending Persian symbols, everyday objects, and calligraphic writing into his work.
In this piece you see a bird and a poet together—two familiar figures, but fragmented and abstracted. The shapes feel cut up, almost like shards from the old carpets and locks he collected, objects that in Iranian culture were believed to hold protective power. The bird, a common motif, carries the poet, suggesting a dialogue between literature and spirituality.
The print’s lines are loose, almost like someone scribbling in a notebook, and the Arabic text adds a layer of lyrical rhythm. Tanavoli was drawing on a long tradition of Persian poetry and popular religious practice, turning those traditions into visual puzzles that ask you to look closer.
See it in person
Poet and Bird is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
