The Journey Of Hagop Hagopian From Realism To Surrealism
Egyptian-Armenian artist Hagop Hagopian (May 16, 1923 – March 9, 2013) was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. After his father passed away in September 1934, he moved to Nicosia, Cyprus, where he lived for the next seven years (until 1941) at the Melkonian Boarding School. He met Onnig Avedissian (1898-1974), his new art instructor, between the years of 1936 and 1941. This was comforting for him because Avedissian supported his gifted student, and they later became lifelong friends.
Hagop, then 18 years old, moved back to Alexandria in the middle of 1941 and worked for about two years in a textile mill. He took free art classes at the Fine Arts School in Cairo from 1944 to 1947 after the family relocated there, probably in late 1943 or early 1944. Ahmed Sabry and Hussein Bicar, two academic artists, served as his teachers.
He contributed three monochromatic watercolours in dark brown tonalities to the first group exhibition of Armeno-Egyptian artists in Cairo during this formative time. From March 25 to April 15, 1945, "Les Amis de la Culture Arménienne" organized it. The artist's earliest body of work consists of these three pieces, which show small groups of individuals in religious ecstatic poses and are done in a static, somber manner. It is recalled that his mother and sister participated in some sectarian religious activities in the middle of the 1940s, and he attended a few of their "meetings" to create some sketches. This was the young artist's first truly original thought, and it was also audacious and brilliant.
Of course, the artist later improved this overly simplistic monochromatic color scheme. But over the course of his lengthy creative career, gloomy harmonies—basically Grays, yellow-ochre, and dark brown—were to become his only "tonalistic" approach. Regardless of the subject, the stiff compositions of his works also reflected his somber disposition and constrictive personality. Nevertheless, his linear modeling was accurate.
Fortunately, Hagopian's request for a scholarship to study in Paris for two years was granted by the Armenian community of Cairo, who recognized his talent.
Because of this, he took the chance and traveled to Paris in 1952 despite getting married to Mary Hovelian (an Ashod Zorian disciple) in 1949 and already having a child. He started out taking classes at Andre Lotte's studio before being transferred to the Grand-Chaumiere Academy to study under Edward Goerg. In the middle of 1954, he went back to Egypt.
He took part in the Biennale of Alexandria in 1955 with a piece titled Maternity. A true work of art, it. He took part in the second, third, and fourth Biennales after that.
He also took part in Cairo's Annual Saloon the following year, but 1957 marked his actual start. He produced a body of work in 1962 that is regarded as original and humanistic today, despite depicting poverty, despair, and occasionally loneliness. In addition, several critics have noted that the paintings lack rich color harmonies and free line drawing. He finally succeeded in developing a distinctive personal style, which can be categorized as a type of "Stylized Realism" during this phase (1957–1962).
We can distinguish two groups of paintings based on the themes he covered in his work during this Egyptian era. a collection of figure compositions and still lifes, the majority of which feature proletarian types, such as The Water (1958), The Washer Woman (1960), and The Smoker (1962). The still lifes mostly feature "humiliating" kitchen scenes (with a bunch of garlic included in the composition). Man with a Plant, which he painted in 1962, was his final "Egyptian" work.
At a group exhibition of Armeno-Egyptian artists held in Cairo's "L'art Pour Tous" (art for all) gallery in January 1962, Hagopian took part for the last time.
Hagop In Armenia
Around 200 repatriated Armenians, including Hagopian and his family—his wife Mary Hovelian, their two daughters Nora and Sirvart—boarded the Soviet liner "Litva" as it sailed from Alexandria on October 21, 1962.
The artist's art underwent a significant transformation when he moved to Armenia in 1962, finding himself in an entirely new environment (both culturally and socially).
He quickly adapted to the new subject matter despite being an experienced artist and started by creating a number of serene and somber townscapes that showed the streets and alleys of Leninakan. Through a series of landscapes, he next investigated the unique characteristics of Armenia, gradually enhancing his work with fresh themes. Original but slightly odd still lifes are first, followed by a number of allegorical compositions that can be broken down into three subtypes: dummies, tools, and chairs. There are also straightforward figure compositions. He produced some manikin compositions in his final stages.
His art in Armenia gradually transitioned from stylized realism to surrealism, which was founded on symbolism and social criticism. However, even when he depicted movements, his color schemes were always somber and cold, and his compositions were static all around. As we've already mentioned, he was essentially a draftsman who "covered" his drawings with color.
Hagopian enjoyed great respect in Soviet Armenia. He enrolled in the Union of Armenian Artists' membership program right away.
As a result of his family's relocation to Yerevan, he received a larger studio and was able to focus all of his time and effort on his art.
His first solo exhibition was staged in 1963 by the Union of Artists and took place in Yerevan, Leninakan, and Kirovakan.
He received the designation of Honored Artist of Armenia in 1971. The State Prize of Armenia was given to him in 1977, and the State Prize of the USSR was given to him in 1986. He was elected as a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts in 1988.
The most renowned Soviet publishing house issued a high-quality album about his life and work in Moscow in 1983, with the subtitle "The Masters of Soviet Art" (35,000 copies were printed).
Eleven one-man exhibitions were staged by The Union of Artists in Paris, Cyprus, Helsinki, Armenia, and the Soviet Union. These included a sizable retrospective display held in Moscow in 1990.
Shahen Khachaturian, a critic, wrote and assembled a second album that was released in Canada in 1997.
