Charles Garabedian [1923 - 2016]
THE EUNUCH, 2003-2004
Acrylic on paper
48 x 61 in.
121.92 x 154.94 cm
CG10407
DANAE, 2003-04
Acrylic on paper
48 x 59 in.
121.92 x 149.86 cm
CG10408
Charles Garabedian
Mythical Beast, 2003-04
Crayon and acrylic on paper
48 x 69 in. (121.92 x 175.26 cm)
CG10409
SEPTEMBER SONG, 2001-2004
Acrylic on canvas
156 x 300 in.
396.24 x 762 cm
CG10405
THE SPRING FOR WHICH I LONGED, 2001-2003
Acrylic on canvas
144 x 288 in.
365.76 x 731.52 cm
CG10406
THE ALABAMA AND THE KEARSAGE, 2003-04
Acrylic on paper
48 x 105 1/2 in.
121.92 x 267.97 cm
CG10410
December 9, 2004 – January 22, 2005
Opening reception: Thursday, December 9, 2004
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Betty Cuningham Gallery is proud to announce the exhibition of recent works by Charles Garabedian. This show is presented in conjunction with LA Louver (Venice, California) where it originated this past September.
The two grand scale paintings are true to words Garabedian uses in referring to his work: “monumental, archetypal, primal.” Both canvases, The Spring for Which I Longed and September Song, were created during a three-year period (2001-2003) and represent the artist’s largest works to date.
In The Spring for Which I Longed, 12 x 24 feet, two female nudes dominate the foreground. One of the nymphs, dazed, lies cropped along the lower left-hand portion of the canvas on the shore of a seascape. Her counterpart poses demurely against the shape of a mermaid-contoured abstraction. The gradual rising of an ocean’s swell is the backdrop of space in between these figures, with nuances of detail like the faint beginnings of a musical score written against the sea’s frothy surface. Riding the crest of the wave, at the high point of the canvas, an open eye surveys the scene. September Song, which measures 13 x 25 feet, depicts a solitary nude figure lying in a simple wooden boat, like an open coffin. The boat drifts close to a small verdant outcropping in a vast sea, while a large ice-mass looms in the distance.
The paintings are accompanied by a series of works on paper, further melding representational and abstract imagery. Throughout, the artist explores a preoccupation with mythology and literature, producing images which seem unfiltered by this consciousness. These works are the wild and vivid imaginings of a creative—and well versed—mind.
Garabedian has an extensive exhibition history. Highlight venues include: The Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial 1975, 1985; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1976; Venice Biennale 1976, 1982, 1984; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, 1984; The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York 1989; and The Corcoran Biennial 1993. Charles Garabedian has the following credits: The National Endowment for the Art Fellowship, 1977; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1979; The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, 2000.
Click below for full press release.
There is a small exhibition in memory of Charles Garabedian (1923 – 2016) currently at Sidecar, the adjoining annex space of Betty Cuningham Gallery on the Lower East Side. Consisting of one painting on each of the room’s three walls (the fourth is a large window facing the street), it’s a quick reminder of the long life and prolific output of a Los Angeles painter whose work was filled to bursting with light, color, and a ribald empathy for his fellow human beings.
In the introduction to an interview for Hyperallergic Weekend published the year before he died, Jennifer Samet captures Garabedian’s personality and influence in a single paragraph:
He stays above the fray throughout our conversation, telling the stories of the myths he loves and travel adventures with friends, rather than explaining the work or aesthetic decisions. “You are a humanist,” his wife Gwen calls out to him, when she hears us discussing his personal relationship to Greek tragedy. Garabedian is humble but ambitious; the figures in his paintings are monumental but gawky – relatable heroes and heroines. It is hard to imagine the work of Dana Schutz, Judith Linhares, and Francesco Clemente without Garabedian’s example, although Garabedian would never claim to lead any school; he is too busy with the challenges and fun of the daily work, even at age 91.
![Charles Garabedian [1923 - 2016]](https://img.artlogic.net/w_300,h_230,c_limit/exhibit-e/54ee2ef607a72c654cd274a6/54f51d21198a00f1c7841d23572cd6e5.jpeg)
We are sad to convey the news that artist Charles Garabedian died on February 11, 2016, at the age of 92. The cause of death was prostate cancer.
In deceptively cheery colors, 91-year-old artist Charles Garabedianreimagines famous tales of woe from classical mythology, where murder, torture, and madness abound. “Sacrifice for the Fleet,” now at L.A. Louver, hosts a series of new and recent works born from the artist’s fascination with Greek literature, Biblical texts, and Armenian manuscripts (he is the son of Armenian refugees). A proponent of so-called “Bad Painting,” Garabedian’s paintings possess an illustrative quality, with raw figuration and garish hues.
If you've never seen works by Los Angeles based artist, Charles Garabedian, let me warn you before you step into LA Louver Gallery to see his latest exhibition. Garabedian's paintings and drawings illustrate dramatic and painful moments of Greek mythology and Christianity. And most of his characters are naked, frightened and rather ugly.
