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The Daily Star, Lebanon
Aug 24 2012
Lightning strikes twice for artist
August 24, 2012 12:05 AM
By Chirine Lahoud
BEIRUT: It's not so rare for artists to marry. It is unusual for the
lightning bolt of artistic success to strike twice.
That is exactly what happened at the competition around the `Creative
Cities Collection,' the fine arts exhibition staged around the London
2012 Olympics, which saw Lebanese artist Lena Kelekian and
architect/artist Hagop Sulahian (her husband) both win gold medals for
their respective work.
One of the several fine arts and cultural activities staged to run in
parallel with the London Olympiad, the `Creative Cities Collection'
gathered more than 500 international works, selected from some 15,000
entries.
This isn't the first time a fine art exhibition ran concurrently with
the Olympics. The inaugural event took place four years ago, during
the Beijing Olympics.
At the time, the exhibition was themed `Colors and the Olympics.'
This year's event, which ran Aug. 1-7 at London's Barbican Center, was
organized along the theme `The Great China Wall and the River Thames
Embrace the World.'
This theme, as Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming remarked at the
exhibition's opening ceremony, was meant to refer to an `Olympic
cultural journey that explores from Beijing to London ... and from the
Great Wall to the River Thames.'
This was Sulahian's first Olympic-related gold medal. For Kelekian,
however, it was the second. She also took gold and the Olympic Torch
at Beijing for her painting `Planet Earth in the 21st Century.'
This makes Kelekian the only artist from the Arab world to win gold
for her art at two consecutive Olympiads.
The organizing Committee for the Olympic Fine Arts 2012 created an
international jury to vet the thousands of entries submitted for this
year's event. The jury was comprised of representatives from the U.N.,
the International Olympic Committee, the Culture Ministry of the
Peoples Republic of China, the London Organizing Committee of the
Olympic Games, the Greater London Authority, as well as eminent art
theorists and critics.
This was the body that selected Kelekian's mixed-media work
`Meandering Harmony in Progress' as well as Sulahian's
acrylic-on-canvas piece `Colorful Medley of Olympic Harmony' for this
year's show.
The Daily Star attempted to reach Qin Ying, one of an undisclosed
number of curators for the 2012 event, to flesh out some of the
criteria for the selection process and the parameters of the
competition leading up to the awarding of medals, however Qin could
not be reached before this article went to press.
In the briefing document she composed for her work, Kelekian described
her painting as representing the Great Wall of China and the River
Thames `taking us on a historical journey along architectural
landmarks, embracing around the Olympic Stadium, depicting all the
Olympic disciplines.'
Scrutinizing Kelekian's work, observers may notice an abstract design
joining to form the Olympic rings, symbolizing unity and harmony.
Sulahian's work is also concerned with harmony. Thick layers of
vividly colored paint protrude from the canvas. The Olympic rings are
concealed in the middle of the piece, visible only when viewed from a
distance - which is meant to represent the diversity of the Games.
`It is the concept of the work and the artistic quality that count,
not the country,' Kelekian told The Daily Star in a phone interview,
later saying that in the coming two months she will attend the Beijing
and Seoul Biennales.
`We received the medals for Lebanon,' she said. `It is the best one
you can ever have during such a historic event.'
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Aug-24/185516-lightning-strikes-twice-for-artist.ashx#axzz24wUdjBOk
Aug 24 2012
Lightning strikes twice for artist
August 24, 2012 12:05 AM
By Chirine Lahoud
BEIRUT: It's not so rare for artists to marry. It is unusual for the
lightning bolt of artistic success to strike twice.
That is exactly what happened at the competition around the `Creative
Cities Collection,' the fine arts exhibition staged around the London
2012 Olympics, which saw Lebanese artist Lena Kelekian and
architect/artist Hagop Sulahian (her husband) both win gold medals for
their respective work.
One of the several fine arts and cultural activities staged to run in
parallel with the London Olympiad, the `Creative Cities Collection'
gathered more than 500 international works, selected from some 15,000
entries.
This isn't the first time a fine art exhibition ran concurrently with
the Olympics. The inaugural event took place four years ago, during
the Beijing Olympics.
At the time, the exhibition was themed `Colors and the Olympics.'
This year's event, which ran Aug. 1-7 at London's Barbican Center, was
organized along the theme `The Great China Wall and the River Thames
Embrace the World.'
This theme, as Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming remarked at the
exhibition's opening ceremony, was meant to refer to an `Olympic
cultural journey that explores from Beijing to London ... and from the
Great Wall to the River Thames.'
This was Sulahian's first Olympic-related gold medal. For Kelekian,
however, it was the second. She also took gold and the Olympic Torch
at Beijing for her painting `Planet Earth in the 21st Century.'
This makes Kelekian the only artist from the Arab world to win gold
for her art at two consecutive Olympiads.
The organizing Committee for the Olympic Fine Arts 2012 created an
international jury to vet the thousands of entries submitted for this
year's event. The jury was comprised of representatives from the U.N.,
the International Olympic Committee, the Culture Ministry of the
Peoples Republic of China, the London Organizing Committee of the
Olympic Games, the Greater London Authority, as well as eminent art
theorists and critics.
This was the body that selected Kelekian's mixed-media work
`Meandering Harmony in Progress' as well as Sulahian's
acrylic-on-canvas piece `Colorful Medley of Olympic Harmony' for this
year's show.
The Daily Star attempted to reach Qin Ying, one of an undisclosed
number of curators for the 2012 event, to flesh out some of the
criteria for the selection process and the parameters of the
competition leading up to the awarding of medals, however Qin could
not be reached before this article went to press.
In the briefing document she composed for her work, Kelekian described
her painting as representing the Great Wall of China and the River
Thames `taking us on a historical journey along architectural
landmarks, embracing around the Olympic Stadium, depicting all the
Olympic disciplines.'
Scrutinizing Kelekian's work, observers may notice an abstract design
joining to form the Olympic rings, symbolizing unity and harmony.
Sulahian's work is also concerned with harmony. Thick layers of
vividly colored paint protrude from the canvas. The Olympic rings are
concealed in the middle of the piece, visible only when viewed from a
distance - which is meant to represent the diversity of the Games.
`It is the concept of the work and the artistic quality that count,
not the country,' Kelekian told The Daily Star in a phone interview,
later saying that in the coming two months she will attend the Beijing
and Seoul Biennales.
`We received the medals for Lebanon,' she said. `It is the best one
you can ever have during such a historic event.'
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Aug-24/185516-lightning-strikes-twice-for-artist.ashx#axzz24wUdjBOk