Arthur Sarkissian

Game in the Museum #1, 2005, oil on canvas, 195x145cm.

Biography

• 1960 Born in Gyumri, Armenia. Lives inYerevan, Armenia.
• 1977 School of Fine Arts,Gyumri,Armenia.
• 1989 Armenian Pedagogical University. Drawing.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions:

• 1994 – Bossen Cultural Center, Saarbrücken, Germany
• 1998 – JNR Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2003 – Mind Games, First Floor Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia

Arthur Sarkissian with his
Representative Caroline Tufenkian
1927 Gallery, Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles, California

• 2006 – First Floor Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2008 – Museum of Modern Art, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2009 – Between The Images, One Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2010 – Between The Images 2, 1927 Gallery, Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles, California

• 2010 - Between The Images 3, Artology Gallery 101, Los Angeles, California

Group exhibitions:

• 1989 – "Art of the USSR: The Past 50 Years", Madrid, Spain Catalogues
• 1991 – "New Tendencies in Art", Goyak Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
• 1991 – "Contemporary Art From Armenia", The New Academy Gallery, London, UK
• 1992 – "Contemporary Armenian Artists", Gallery Vision, Kassel, Germany
• 1992 – "Armenian Post-Modernism", Moscow, Russia
• 1997 – "Dreams & Visions", Art Benefit, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 1999 – "Windows to Armenia" and "With Many Voices", Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Illinois, US
• 2005 – "Armenian Contemporary Art", Harvest Gallery, Glendale, CA, USA
• 2005 – Marie Pargas Art Gallery, Asheville, NC, USA
• 2005 – The Collection Of Viken Makhyan, AGBU Pasadena Center, USA
• 2005 – "Photo Plus", ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2006 – "Art Without Borders", Havana Gallery, Oldenburg, Germany
• 2007 – "Armenian Landscapes in Contemporary Art", EWZ, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2007 – "5 Armenian Artists", Marcel, France
• 2007 – "Armenian Contemporary Art", Paris, France
• 2008 – "Undercurrent Shifts", ACCEA, curated by Sonia Balassanian & David Kareyan
• 2009 – "Transitional Hypothesis", group exhibition of Armenian-Japanese artists, ACCEA
• 2010 - "Colors of Armenia Exhibition" Yerevan, Armenia
• 2010 - "Colors of Armenia Exhibition" Marseille, France
• 2010 - "OPTIMIZM, Armenian New Art" Artists Union, Yerevan, Armenia
• 2011 - "Art Cube Gallery" Group Exhibition Laguna Beach, California , USA

Catalogue

• 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

Gallery

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  Arthur Sarkissian
  A Fabricated Page, 2006, oil on canvas, 70x90cm

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  Arthur Sarkissian
  Twenty Color Pages, 2002, oil on canvas, 195x125cm.

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  Arthur Sarkissian
  Nervus Probandus, 2009, oil on canvas,

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  Arthur Sarkissian
  13 Colour Scriptums. 2009 oil on canvas, 80x110cm.

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  Arthur Sarkissian
  Evening in the Museum, 2005, oil on canvas, 95x175cm.
  Sold in Koller Auktionen Zürich

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  Arthur SarkissianCronicle 2008, oil on canvas

Art Critic

• 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.

Public Collections

• Modern Art Museum of Armenia
• Various private collections

External Links

• Follow Artist on Facebook
• http://arthursarkissian.com Personal WebSite
• http://arthur.davosfilms.com
• Wikipedia Article