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TWO VIEWS: A QUIZZICAL PAIRING FROM ARMENIA
By Chirine Lahoud
The Daily Star
Nov 3 2012
Lebanon
BURJ HAMMOUD, Lebanon: Contradiction would be the appropriate word
to describe "Two Perspectives," the show now up at Hamazkayin Gallery.
The exhibition showcases 34 paintings by Armenian artists Gagik
Ghazanchyan and Lilit Soghomonyan.
Viewers meandering in the gallery will find two distinct styles
adorning the expansive white space - Ghazanchyan's powerful colors,
thickly applied, and the more discrete brushstrokes of Soghomonyan's
canvases.
Although the oranges, blacks, yellows and blues in Ghazanchyan's
oil-on-canvas works are more demanding of your attention, several of
his pieces bare an uncanny resemblance to one another. But for a few
distinctions, "A Motion," "A Berth," "A Vision" and "A Two-Wheeler"
are loose facsimiles of one another.
All center on black circular motifs - as though rendering motorized
movement - accessorized with dotted lines to the left of the canvas
and blue blotches to the upper left.
Hung close alongside one another, the placement does less to mark the
uniqueness of the individual pieces than it does to invite onlookers
to spot the similarities.
This work is a tour de force of colorful and textural application
of paint. Though it is not uncommon for artists working in abstract
figuration to create dozens of studies on a single theme or model,
the point of Ghazanchyan's reiterations is not necessarily clear to
those encountering his work for the first time.
"Old Ship" (oil on canvas, 125x80 cm) marks a pleasant departure. Its
intriguing palette of blues, turquoises and grays - perhaps a wink
in the direction of the works of English painter William Turner -
are somehow evocative of things nautical.
Though no more representational than his other work, the painting
suggests a tall ship in distress - or perhaps wrecked. The upper part
of the piece represents its sails torn by the gale or the passage
of time.
Soghomonyan's paintings evince a lighter hand, the fine lines of her
work suggestive of pen-and-ink sketches. Most of these works depict
woman chatting or people dancing.
In her four-canvas series "Dancing" (I, II, III and IV), Soghomonyan
blurs the dancing figures at the center of the canvas, as though to
conceal the intimacy of their embrace within movement that cannot be
apprehended by the eye of the onlooker.
Yet there is also something familiar in Soghomonyan's work.
Her "Conversation about Everything" (mixed media-on-paper 56x76
cm) bears a strong resemblance to the bronzes of Canadian sculptor
Rose-Aimee Belanger.
In Belanger's "Les Chuchoteuses" (The Whisperers), which can be seen in
the Saint-Paul Street of Montreal, three plump women are represented
sitting on a bench, in earnest conclave. Soghomonyan's piece finds
four curvaceous women, chitchatting.
Soghomonyan's depiction of women - fleshy, curvy and embodying
femininity - also bears resemblance with the oddly-shaped females
of French artist Jean-Louis Toutain, who was known for his massively
feminine humanoid figures.
"Being a part of the creation process," Soghomonyan writes in the
exhibition catalogue, "gives an enticing opportunity to get out of
the borders of mere reality mirroring."
This is no doubt good advice."Two Perspectives" is now up at Hamazkayin
Gallery until Nov. 10. For more information, please call 01-241-262.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Nov-03/193689-two-views-a-quizzical-pairing-from-armenia.ashx#axzz2B7TY9gvh
By Chirine Lahoud
The Daily Star
Nov 3 2012
Lebanon
BURJ HAMMOUD, Lebanon: Contradiction would be the appropriate word
to describe "Two Perspectives," the show now up at Hamazkayin Gallery.
The exhibition showcases 34 paintings by Armenian artists Gagik
Ghazanchyan and Lilit Soghomonyan.
Viewers meandering in the gallery will find two distinct styles
adorning the expansive white space - Ghazanchyan's powerful colors,
thickly applied, and the more discrete brushstrokes of Soghomonyan's
canvases.
Although the oranges, blacks, yellows and blues in Ghazanchyan's
oil-on-canvas works are more demanding of your attention, several of
his pieces bare an uncanny resemblance to one another. But for a few
distinctions, "A Motion," "A Berth," "A Vision" and "A Two-Wheeler"
are loose facsimiles of one another.
All center on black circular motifs - as though rendering motorized
movement - accessorized with dotted lines to the left of the canvas
and blue blotches to the upper left.
Hung close alongside one another, the placement does less to mark the
uniqueness of the individual pieces than it does to invite onlookers
to spot the similarities.
This work is a tour de force of colorful and textural application
of paint. Though it is not uncommon for artists working in abstract
figuration to create dozens of studies on a single theme or model,
the point of Ghazanchyan's reiterations is not necessarily clear to
those encountering his work for the first time.
"Old Ship" (oil on canvas, 125x80 cm) marks a pleasant departure. Its
intriguing palette of blues, turquoises and grays - perhaps a wink
in the direction of the works of English painter William Turner -
are somehow evocative of things nautical.
Though no more representational than his other work, the painting
suggests a tall ship in distress - or perhaps wrecked. The upper part
of the piece represents its sails torn by the gale or the passage
of time.
Soghomonyan's paintings evince a lighter hand, the fine lines of her
work suggestive of pen-and-ink sketches. Most of these works depict
woman chatting or people dancing.
In her four-canvas series "Dancing" (I, II, III and IV), Soghomonyan
blurs the dancing figures at the center of the canvas, as though to
conceal the intimacy of their embrace within movement that cannot be
apprehended by the eye of the onlooker.
Yet there is also something familiar in Soghomonyan's work.
Her "Conversation about Everything" (mixed media-on-paper 56x76
cm) bears a strong resemblance to the bronzes of Canadian sculptor
Rose-Aimee Belanger.
In Belanger's "Les Chuchoteuses" (The Whisperers), which can be seen in
the Saint-Paul Street of Montreal, three plump women are represented
sitting on a bench, in earnest conclave. Soghomonyan's piece finds
four curvaceous women, chitchatting.
Soghomonyan's depiction of women - fleshy, curvy and embodying
femininity - also bears resemblance with the oddly-shaped females
of French artist Jean-Louis Toutain, who was known for his massively
feminine humanoid figures.
"Being a part of the creation process," Soghomonyan writes in the
exhibition catalogue, "gives an enticing opportunity to get out of
the borders of mere reality mirroring."
This is no doubt good advice."Two Perspectives" is now up at Hamazkayin
Gallery until Nov. 10. For more information, please call 01-241-262.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Nov-03/193689-two-views-a-quizzical-pairing-from-armenia.ashx#axzz2B7TY9gvh