Varujan Boghosian
Lori Bookstein Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of collages and constructions by Varujan Boghosian. This is the artist's fourth exhibition and second solo-show with the gallery.
For his latest exhibition, the artist has created a series of collages and constructions that pay homage to Marcel Duchamp. Widely recognized for his contributions to postmodernism and conceptual art, Duchamp's influence has long been present in Boghosian's oeuvre. This is certainly discernable in Boghosian's Dadaist aesthetic and appropriation of found objects, but most predominately, it can be felt in the artist’s shared use of humor.
“Humor was a sort of savior so to speak because, before, art was such a serious thing, so pontifical that I was very happy when I discovered that I could introduce humor into it.”[1] – Marcel Duchamp
Often making tongue-in-cheek allusions to Duchamp’s work, this series is perhaps Boghosian’s wittiest. For example, in Rose Sail La Vie, the title puns on Rose Sélavy, Marcel Duchamp's pseudonym and drag identity. In another piece, The Bride Vanishes, the artist makes a witted reference to Duchamp’s masterpiece, The Bride Stripped Bare of Her Bachelors Even,[2] by literally stripping away the photographic information that describes the bride’s face. At other times yet, Boghosian also pays homage to Duchamp's seminal contribution of the readymade. By framing singular sheets of found paper that reference anything from Duchamp's name to the title of one of his works, Boghosian ensures the viewer he's in on the joke.
This exhibition is presented concurrently with the exhibition, Varujan Boghosian, at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, which will be on view from December 13, 2013 – May 25, 2014.
Varujan Boghosian (b. 1926, New Britain, CT) received his BFA in 1957 and MFA in 1959 from Yale University School of Art and Architecture. Public collections include the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Hood Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the subject of a forthcoming exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH. The artist, retired from a 35-year teaching career at Yale, Brown and Dartmouth, lives and works in Hanover, NH.
Varujan Boghosian: N ♥ Duchamp will be on view from November 14, 2013 – January 4, 2014. Also on view is Varujan Boghosian: N ♥ Man Ray, 2. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 14th from 6-8 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact Joseph Bunge at (212) 750-0949 or by email at joseph@loribooksteinfineart.com.
[1] Marcel Duchamp in an interview with Guy Viau, Canadian Radio Television, July 17, 1960. Translated by Sarah Skinner Kilbourne. See Tout-fait, Vol. 2, Issue 4. January 2002.
[2] Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panels 109 ¼ x 70 x 3 3/8 inches. Collection Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Bequest of Katherine S. Dreier, 1952.