Fereydoun Hoveyda

Fereydoun Hoveyda emerges in Andy Warhol’s diary through a series of encounters that connect diplomatic change in Iran with the private loss of Hoveyda’s brother. First seen at the Iranian embassy as news of the Shah’s impending abdication circulated, he later appears as a former ambassador, a mourner at a memorial, and a public critic of the new regime. These brief records trace a political transition through the personal circumstances of one of its witnesses.

At the Iranian embassy

On December 22, 1978, Andy Warhol went to the Iranian embassy with Paulette Goddard and Bob. Warhol gave Hoveyda a print during the visit. News reports that the Shah would abdicate and his son would succeed him gave the gathering an immediate political context, though the diary does not describe Hoveyda’s response to the news. The entry places him inside an embassy whose diplomatic world was already under pressure from events in Iran.

Hoveyda’s role had changed by the time of a later social gathering recorded in the diary: he had just resigned as ambassador. Of the 400 people Bob had invited, only six attended, among them Hoveyda, Truman Capote, the Eberstadts, and the Gilmans. His presence at the sparsely attended gathering marks him as part of Warhol’s social world even as his formal diplomatic position had ended.

A memorial for his brother

On April 19, 1979, Warhol attended a memorial service for Hoveyda’s brother, who had been executed in Iran. The service took place in a home on Riverside Drive. Those attending removed their shoes, and a rug lay in the center of the room; because there was no body, people hesitated to step on it. Iranian music accompanied the gathering. Warhol compared its social atmosphere to a cocktail party, while noting the absence of drinks—a contrast that registers both the service’s intimate setting and its solemn purpose.

The diary gives few details about Hoveyda himself at the memorial, but the ceremony makes the consequences of political upheaval unmistakably personal. The absent body and the rug that stood in its place became the service’s focus, while the family’s loss was shared in a communal gathering.

Public protest

By May, Hoveyda had an exhibition at Bodley Gallery, and Warhol noted a letter by him in The Times about his brother. Addressed to the new regime, the letter argued that his brother had not fled Iran as other ministers had because he believed in the country. Hoveyda described his brother’s killing as murder and warned that the new prime minister could face the same fate.

Together, the exhibition and the letter show Hoveyda appearing in the diary not only as a former ambassador and bereaved brother but also as a public voice. Warhol calls the letter good, registering approval without elaborating on its argument. In the diary’s sequence, Hoveyda’s political criticism follows directly from the family loss commemorated at the Riverside Drive service.