Tufenkian Fine Arts is pleased to present Tribute: Works on Paper, a group exhibition including works by Garo Antreasian, Hagop Hagopian, Varujan Boghosian, and Reuben Nakian. The exhibition will be on view November 19th - December 23rd by appointment A limited number of visitors will be permitted in the gallery in order to provide a safe environment.

“This exhibition honors the Modernist generation(s) of Armenian and Armenian-American artists with a selection of works on paper by four draughtsmen of note. It is a glancing reflection of the outsize contribution made by artists of Armenian descent to the Modernist adventure,” writes Peter Frank. These works on paper play an important role in showing the artist’s creative process. They allow a freedom and immediacy which is more easily achieved while working with paper. Therefore offering us as the viewer, a glimpse into these artist’s creative methods and requires a more intimate viewing and engagement.

Reuben Nakian, born August 10, 1897 in College Point, New York to Armenian immigrants is the elder of the group. A major figure in 20th Century art, Reuben Nakian was a student, creator, and teacher of art during a career spanning over seventy years. A sculptor among painters, and a figurative artist among abstractionists. He died on December 4, 1986 in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of eighty-nine, as one of the most distinguished American sculptors of the 20th Century.

Garo Antreasian, was born on February 16, 1922 in Indianapolis shortly after World War I. His passion for lithography and fine art began at the age of 17 in High School. During World War II he worked as a combat artist for the US Coast Guard covering the Pacific Island invasions. After returning he studied printmaking and became the the first Technical Director of the pioneering Tamarind Lithography Workshop, first in Los Angeles, and then in New Mexico where Garo lived and worked until his passing away at the age of 96 on November 3, 2018.

Varujan Boghosian, the son of Armenian immigrants, born in Connecticut in 1926, best known for his collages and assemblages. It was for these works that “Bugsy” as he came to be known, made his mark in 1960s New York where the following for his collages expanded accordingly. He enjoyed a long career teaching art and many of his works are in numerous public collections. Boghosian (who passed away in September as this show was being assembled) loved to play with his audiences imagination.

Hagop Hagopian, born into the Armenian diaspora – in Egypt, in 1923. The one non-American in this show, Hagopian was also the only one to repatriate to Armenia and is considered one of the most important Armenian artists of his time. Trained in Paris, Hagopian established himself as one of Armenia’s foremost realists, he captures not just the arid terrain and vast sky of Armenia, but the bright, dusty air that characterizes the southern Caucasus.

“If the four different artists here share any one factor besides their heritage, it might be the contradictory nature of their most salutary qualities. Another common factor, this exhibition demonstrates, is paper: all four artists, towering figures in the Armenian diaspora and in modern art, relied on paper-supported media to explore and develop their ways of working – and of meaning,” writes Peter Frank.