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ON ART: SHUSHAN EGOYAN'S CANDID CANVAS
By Robert Amos
Victoria Times Colonist
http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Shushan+Egoyan+candid+canvas/5110875/story.html
July 15 2011
She takes understandable pride in being the mother of renowned
filmmaker Atom Egoyan and world-class pianist Eve Egoyan. And, despite
the aches that come with age, she continues to paint with diligence
and integrity in her small studio, where we sat down for an engaging
conversation last week.
Her interiors are based on a natural understanding of design.
"Once you know art and design, really know it," she mused. "What I do
now is easy. I take it as a canvas when I do a project. I'm not selling
tables or chairs. I think of the room as a canvas, and I make it work."
Her candour is legendary. "I am not a bluffer," she asserted. "That
is one thing I am not. I can work with anything, even if I don't like
the style of furniture. Because if I consider it, there is no way
I can work. I am too honest. I am honest . . . or I keep my mouth
shut. But sometimes it's not that easy. "
Egoyan was born and raised in Cairo, a very civilized city.
"My mother was from Alexandria," she told me. "For generations they
were there. My father came just before the [Armenian] massacre. He
was born on the Turkish side of what is now Turkey. He was a young
fellow and they knew something was coming. He came out. The Armenians
were the first people accepting Christianity, in the sixth century,
and that's why they were massacred, because we were Christians."
"I won a scholarship to go the States," she continued, "but there
was no way my mother would allow it - an Armenian girl going to the
States by herself! Then I went to the university in Cairo to study
art and, being Christian and female, it was the hardest time of my
life. I was really persecuted and I had to leave it."
So she took lessons at the private studio of a well-known teacher. "He
was a very good teacher, a very classical teacher. And the group of
the students were very capable, which makes a big difference. So
that's where it was, completely. That's all I knew. I don't know
anything about sports."
It was there she met her future husband, Joseph Egoyan, also from
Cairo, who had been studying in America. "Joe had gone to the studio
as a young fellow so when he came back [from the U.S.] he went to the
studio and that's where we met. The reason I got married with Joe was
because I loved the style he painted in in the States. Still life,
beautiful work. I had never been exposed to that type of art. I was
very fascinated by that period.
"When I met Joe he said 'I'm planning to open an art gallery. Why
don't you help me?' I was not his girlfriend, nothing. And there was
no way my parents would let me go to work. It was a different society -
girls can't do this, can't do that. There was no way they'd let me.
And so he said, 'Then why don't we get married?' That's Joe."
She was 22 years old. "In that society they expected you to get
married, and I never wanted to. And this is a weird way of proposing.
I liked his work, and the idea of having an art gallery - the person
had nothing to do with it.
"So we opened this gallery, which was a beautiful gallery and, like
most galleries, we couldn't survive. So we designed some furniture
to put in the gallery, to have a sitting area. And people were more
interested in buying those chairs than the art in the gallery. So
that's how it started."
At the time there was political turmoil in Egypt, she said, and the
U.S., Canada and Australia opened their doors.
"One day my brother came - we were just newly married - and he said,
'I have put my name down for Canada.' I said we don't want to go -
life is really comfortable there - but we were one of the first ones
to be accepted."
Joe went first to Chicago, but soon he had had enough of the snow
there. So they came to Vancouver, looking for a teaching position, but
without Canadian credentials. "There was a furniture store, Don Adams,
and Joe went in and said we used to have a design store. Adams said, 'I
am going to Victoria. Why don't you come with me?' On the way back to
Vancouver he said to Joe, 'I want you to take over the Victoria store.'
"Joe said, 'I'm not a businessman,' but [Adams] sponsored us,
introduced us to all the people he was working with and trusted us
with the money, too. It was located right here. We came in 1962. Atom,
our son, was two years old, and Eve was born here."
The store they took over was an art gallery, too - the loft upstairs
was the meeting place for a group of artists called the Point Group,
an outgrowth of Herbert Siebner's activities. "They used to run this
place as if it was theirs," Egoyan said with a laugh.
When she had the temerity to exhibit other artists, they decamped and
reformed as the Limners. "We had Maxwell Bates's first show here . . .
and nobody was interested," she remembered. One of his paintings hung
on the wall behind her as we spoke.
Shushan Egoyan remembered that and much else. Her office, like
her home, is richly stocked with precious artworks from Victoria's
recent past. Among the canvases are her own early paintings, her
husband's watercolours of birds, and the strong impasto of her latest
cloudscapes.
Truly, hers has been a life in the arts.
By Robert Amos
Victoria Times Colonist
http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Shushan+Egoyan+candid+canvas/5110875/story.html
July 15 2011
She takes understandable pride in being the mother of renowned
filmmaker Atom Egoyan and world-class pianist Eve Egoyan. And, despite
the aches that come with age, she continues to paint with diligence
and integrity in her small studio, where we sat down for an engaging
conversation last week.
Her interiors are based on a natural understanding of design.
"Once you know art and design, really know it," she mused. "What I do
now is easy. I take it as a canvas when I do a project. I'm not selling
tables or chairs. I think of the room as a canvas, and I make it work."
Her candour is legendary. "I am not a bluffer," she asserted. "That
is one thing I am not. I can work with anything, even if I don't like
the style of furniture. Because if I consider it, there is no way
I can work. I am too honest. I am honest . . . or I keep my mouth
shut. But sometimes it's not that easy. "
Egoyan was born and raised in Cairo, a very civilized city.
"My mother was from Alexandria," she told me. "For generations they
were there. My father came just before the [Armenian] massacre. He
was born on the Turkish side of what is now Turkey. He was a young
fellow and they knew something was coming. He came out. The Armenians
were the first people accepting Christianity, in the sixth century,
and that's why they were massacred, because we were Christians."
"I won a scholarship to go the States," she continued, "but there
was no way my mother would allow it - an Armenian girl going to the
States by herself! Then I went to the university in Cairo to study
art and, being Christian and female, it was the hardest time of my
life. I was really persecuted and I had to leave it."
So she took lessons at the private studio of a well-known teacher. "He
was a very good teacher, a very classical teacher. And the group of
the students were very capable, which makes a big difference. So
that's where it was, completely. That's all I knew. I don't know
anything about sports."
It was there she met her future husband, Joseph Egoyan, also from
Cairo, who had been studying in America. "Joe had gone to the studio
as a young fellow so when he came back [from the U.S.] he went to the
studio and that's where we met. The reason I got married with Joe was
because I loved the style he painted in in the States. Still life,
beautiful work. I had never been exposed to that type of art. I was
very fascinated by that period.
"When I met Joe he said 'I'm planning to open an art gallery. Why
don't you help me?' I was not his girlfriend, nothing. And there was
no way my parents would let me go to work. It was a different society -
girls can't do this, can't do that. There was no way they'd let me.
And so he said, 'Then why don't we get married?' That's Joe."
She was 22 years old. "In that society they expected you to get
married, and I never wanted to. And this is a weird way of proposing.
I liked his work, and the idea of having an art gallery - the person
had nothing to do with it.
"So we opened this gallery, which was a beautiful gallery and, like
most galleries, we couldn't survive. So we designed some furniture
to put in the gallery, to have a sitting area. And people were more
interested in buying those chairs than the art in the gallery. So
that's how it started."
At the time there was political turmoil in Egypt, she said, and the
U.S., Canada and Australia opened their doors.
"One day my brother came - we were just newly married - and he said,
'I have put my name down for Canada.' I said we don't want to go -
life is really comfortable there - but we were one of the first ones
to be accepted."
Joe went first to Chicago, but soon he had had enough of the snow
there. So they came to Vancouver, looking for a teaching position, but
without Canadian credentials. "There was a furniture store, Don Adams,
and Joe went in and said we used to have a design store. Adams said, 'I
am going to Victoria. Why don't you come with me?' On the way back to
Vancouver he said to Joe, 'I want you to take over the Victoria store.'
"Joe said, 'I'm not a businessman,' but [Adams] sponsored us,
introduced us to all the people he was working with and trusted us
with the money, too. It was located right here. We came in 1962. Atom,
our son, was two years old, and Eve was born here."
The store they took over was an art gallery, too - the loft upstairs
was the meeting place for a group of artists called the Point Group,
an outgrowth of Herbert Siebner's activities. "They used to run this
place as if it was theirs," Egoyan said with a laugh.
When she had the temerity to exhibit other artists, they decamped and
reformed as the Limners. "We had Maxwell Bates's first show here . . .
and nobody was interested," she remembered. One of his paintings hung
on the wall behind her as we spoke.
Shushan Egoyan remembered that and much else. Her office, like
her home, is richly stocked with precious artworks from Victoria's
recent past. Among the canvases are her own early paintings, her
husband's watercolours of birds, and the strong impasto of her latest
cloudscapes.
Truly, hers has been a life in the arts.