COLLAGE ON VIEW
Varujan Boghosian: A Selection
at Alexandre Gallery in New York City
16 February-13 April 2019
“Varujan Boghosian: A Selection” is a survey exhibition of select assemblages and collages from the artist’s personal collection.
Sculptor, assembler, constructionist, builder–beachcomber, scavenger, collector, historian, conservator–Boghosian’s work is inspired by the past, by an appreciation of the legacy of myth, of people and objects that have come before, and a love of the images and iconography that are part of our shared human experience. He gathers these relics of our common experience, creating objects that become poetic tributes transformed by imagination.
In his assemblages, Boghosian incorporates found objects, such as books, toys, cards and materials from antique shops and flea markets. He employs strategies of construction and deconstruction to re-contextualize these castoff materials into his work. His approach is intuitive and meditative, drawing inspiration from a plurality of sources including literature, mythology, art history, music and nature. Allusions to Greek myths feature prominently in his work. He also draws inspiration from Surrealist traditions that contemplate the boundaries between dream and reality.
Boghosian was born in New Britain, Connecticut in 1926. His father emigrated from Armenia and was a cobbler, before going to work at Stanley Tool Works. Boghosian joined the Navy during World War II and returned home in 1946 to enter the local teachers’ training college. He soon changed his plans and entered the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953 he received a Fulbright Grant for painting in Italy. When he returned, he became a student of Joseph Albers at Yale School of Art and Architecture.
Boghosian held teaching positions at the University of Florida, Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Yale, Brown, and since 1968, at Dartmouth, from where he recently retired. He has received awards from the American Academy in Rome, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others. Early in his career he showed at the legendary Stable Gallery and at Cordier & Ekstrom. His work is in many public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which recently presented a one-person exhibition of his work. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
(text adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Alexandre Gallery
4th Floor
724 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10019 USA
(212) 755-2828
Hours:
Tuesday-Friday, 10AM-5:30PM
Saturday, 11AM-5PM
and by appointment
Image:
Robert Louis Stevenson
by Varujan Boghosian
21.5″x17.5″
mixed media collage
2007
Courtesy of the artist and Alexandre Gallery, New York