Art Critic
1960 Born in Gyumri, Armenia. Lives inYerevan, Armenia. 1977 School of Fine Arts,Gyumri,Armenia. 1989 Armenian Pedagogical University. Drawing.
2008 Modern Art Museum of Armenia 2006 First Floor Gallery. Yerevan, Armenia 2003 "MIND GAMES", First Floor Gallery. Yerevan, Armenia 1994 Bossen Cultural Center. Saarbrucken, Germany 1998 JNR Gallery. Yerevan, Armenia
2007 – “Armenian Contemporary Art” Paris, France 2007 – “5 Armenian Artists”, Marcel, France 2007 - "Armenian Landscapes in Contemporary Art", Schweizerland 2006 – “Armenian Style” Akanat Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia 2006 – “Art Without Borders” Havana Gallery, Oldenburg, Germany 2005 – Marie Pargas Art Gallery, USA 2005 – The Collection Of Viken Makhyan, AGBU Pasadena Center, USA 2005 – “Oil On Canvas” Academy gallery, Yerevan, Armenia 2005 – “Photo Plus” ACCEA , Yerevan, Armenia 2004 – “The Dynamics Of Abstract Art In Armenia” Akanat gallery, Yerevan, Armenia 2004-“Ackademy gallery” Festival of gallery’s, Yerevan. 2002-2003- William J. Bachman Gallery Beyond Icons Contemporary art in Armenia 2001- National Gallery of Armenia Exhibition devoted to the 1700 anniversary of Christianity in Armenia. 1999 "Windows to Armenia” Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Illinois, US 1999 "With Many Voices", Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Illinois, US 1998 "Inscription: Post-Factum", ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia 1997 "Dreams & Visions", Westin Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, USA 1996 "Armenian Money Mark", TAAK Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia 1995 "Contemporary Art of Armenia"…80-95”Central House of Artist, Moscow, Russia 1992 "Armenian Post-Modernism", Moscow, Russia 1992 " Contemporary Armenian Artists", Gallery Vision, Kassel, Germany 1991 "Contemporary Art From Armenia", London, UK 1991 " New Academy Gallery", London, UK 1991 " New Tendencies in Art", Goyak Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia 1989 "Art of the USSR: The Past 50 Years", Madrid, Spain Catalogues
2007 Art contemporain d'Armenie. Paris 2007 5 Artistes Armeniens. Marseille, France 2007 Armenian Landscapes in Contemporary Art. Zurich 2006 Caroline Tufenkian presents Arthur Sarkissian 2006 Henrik Igityan Armenian palette new generation 2005 Galleria D’Arte Renessans Rinascimento 2003 Hidden Gallery Artbridge 2001 Vicki Hovanessian Contemporary Art presents Arthur Sarkissian 1995 Armenian Contemporary Art in 80-95. Moscow, Russia 1994 Armenian Contemporary Art. International Armenian Assemble. Moscow, Russia 1992 Armenian Contemporary Artists. Kassel, Germany 1990 USSR Art in Recent 50 years. Madrid, Spain
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Modern Art Museum of Armenia Various private collections
By Peter Frank In Sarkissian’s paintings what-is-known meets what-is-felt within the bounds of the picture plane. What is “felt” – embodied in Sarkissian’s painterly gestures and rich coloration – maintains its integrity, and what is “known” – concretized in the images Sarkissian finds in mass media and transfers to the heart of his artworks – continues to evince its source in widely disseminated formats such as newspapers and books. But despite this obvious polarity, Sarkissian effects a remarkably easy and unstrained flow between the felt and the known, between raw brushstroke and transferred image. Each element becomes not just a foil, but a partner, for the other. A passage lifted (not literally, as in collage, but photographically, through silkscreen) from an art history textbook or illuminated manuscript or magazine still “reports” its information, but becomes at the same time a factor in a larger composition, enmeshed in painterly incident. Meanwhile, without losing the passion invested in it by Sarkissian’s hand, such painterly incident is ordered into a certain rational structure, one that echoes the lexical coherence that photographic imagery promulgates. Sarkissian’s paintings are at once wholes and sums of parts, and they “talk” to us in several visual languages at once. Such a polyglot, polysemic art is hardly unique to Sarkissian. We see his style anticipated by Robert Rauschenberg, and before him Kurt Schwitters. We even see its textures and practices, as well as philosophical positions, reflected in the work of such disparate predecessors as Warhol, Cornell, Miro, Malevich, and, of course, Picasso. Among other things, Sarkissian demonstrates that the “collage aesthetic” – the simultaneously disjunctive and conjunctive qualities that uniquely define modern composition – remains one of 20th century art’s most significant and enduring legacies. Indeed, this collage aesthetic provides the perceptual crucible in which the dialectic described above is forged, and it defines the particular visual world in which Sarkissian finds his expression.