Տ Ա Ր Ա Գ Ի Ր Ն Ե Ր Ն Ո Ւ Ե Ր Ա Զ Ո Ղ Ն Ե Ր Ը . E X I L E S A N D D R E A M E R S
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Sarkiss Sarkissian
1909 Smyrna , Ottoman Empire – 1977 Detroit MI , USA
Sarkis Sarkisian was a Turkish-born Armenian artist , who spent most of his life in Detroit , USA . His family fled from Turkey because of the massacres of Armenian and Greek populations , when the future painter was only thirteen years old . Sarkisian showed an aptitude for drawing while growing up in Smyrna . Inspired by Greco-Roman ruins around his hometown , he made clay sculptures , kites and even musical instruments . This childhood fascination with the norms of classical beauty remained a defining feature of Sarkisian ’ s art .
The artist received his initial art training at the Wicker Art School , and later graduated from the Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts , becoming an instructor there in 1934 , and then the School ' s director in 1947 . In addition to this , he also taught at the Birmingham Society of Women Painters from 1945 to 1954 . An active exhibitor since the late 1920s , Sarkisian showed his works at different salons in Washington , New York , and Philadelphia , garnering positive notices from The New York Times and Life magazine . While his practice was considerably removed from the avant-garde movements that shaped American modern art of the post-war period , Sarkisian remained a respected figure within the art establishment . His paintings could often be seen at prestigious events such as the Michigan Artists Exhibition , the Annual Exhibitions of American Painters and Sculptors at the Art Institute of Chicago , the Whitney
Biennale of American Art , as well as group exhibitions at MOMA , New York .
Although he was based in the USA for most of his life , Sarkisian ’ s oeuvre was formed under the influence of late-nineteenthcentury European art . According to the artist , the collection of post-impressionist painting assembled by the Detroitian Dr . Wilhelm R . Valentiner , was a crucial source of inspiration for him . The drawing Portrait of a Boy summarizes Sarkisian ' s synthesis of modernist aesthetics with his love of classical antiquity . The portrait was probably a sketch for an oil painting , since Sarkisian didn ’ t leave many individual graphic pieces . However , his mastery is reflected in the minimalistic , almost humble method , through which the artist portrays the inner pain of the wideeyed teenager with just a few lines . Evocative of Jean Cocteau ’ s neoclassical drawings , Sarkissian also searches for something timeless in the adolescent ' s emotional unrest on the way to adulthood . ( AY )
Bibliography Onnig Avedissian , p . 395 ; Daniel Dznuni , p . 437 ; Gordon and Elizabeth Orear , Sarkis , Center for Creative Studies and Wayne State University Press , Detroit , 1995 ; ' Oral history interview with Sarkis Sarkisian ', 1973 February 23-March 23 , https :// www . aaa . si . edu / collections / interviews / oral-history-interview-sarkis-sarkisian-12788 ( accessed : 10.10.2019 )
© Cafesjian Museum Foundation