|  KESHISHIAN
(Krikor Zohrab, Krikor), Artist, Painter
Education:
Mesropian School, Gemaran College, Academic painting studies.
Diplomas:
Greek Atelier Sirios in Aleppo - Italian Atelier Juliano
in Lebanon - Faculté des Beaux Arts Kaslik.
Career:
International Artist, Art Professor.
Other
informations: Cinematographic Posters and théatre
decoration.
Private
exhibitions :
1. 1972 Lebanon
Beirut Bristol hotel
2. 1973 Syria Aleppo national museum
3. 1973 Lebanon Beirut may flowers hotel
4. 1973 Lebanon Beirut national conservatory
5. 1974 Kuwait Kuwait st vartan school
6. 1975 Lebanon Beirut national conservatory
7. 1977 Lebanon Beirut style art gallery
8. 1980 Lebanon Antelias nihako gallery
9. 1980 Cyprus Nicosia Hilton international gallery
10. 1981 USA New York prelacy of the arm. Apostolic church
11. 1981 USA California dikranian hall
12. 1981 USA Hollywood a.g.b.u. art gallery
13. 1982 Lebanon antelias nihako gallery
14. 1983 Cyprus Hilton international gallery
15. 1983 Canada Toronto a.g.b.u. art gallery
16. 1984 Lebanon antelias nihako gallery
17. 1985 Lebanon antelias arm. Catholicosate of Cilicia, gulbenkian
hall
18. 1987 Lebanon Beirut a.g.b.u.garmirian school’s hall
19. 1988 Lebanon antelias catholicosate arm. de cilicie, gulbenkian
hall
20. 1988 Lebanon zouk musbeh gallery “les cimaises”, holiday beach
21. 1989 / 90 Cyprus Nicosia Hilton international gallery
22. 1990 Cyprus rogmi gallery
23. 1991 Lebanon Beirut al muntada gallery
24. 1992 Lebanon Beirut tekeyan center hall
25. 1993 Lebanon zouk musbeh gallery “les cimaises” holliday beach
26. 1994 / 95 Lebanon zouk musbeh gallery «la toile»
rimal
27. 1996 Lebanon dbayeh gallery siran manouguian
28. 1999 Lebanon zouk musbeh gallery« les cimaises »
holiday beach
29. 2004 / 05 Lebanon jal el dib gallery surface libre
30. 2007 Lebanon haigazian university art center matossian gallery
31. 2008 / 09 Lebanon les cimaises gallery holiday beach.
32. 2010 Lebanon zakhem bldg. balamand university.
33. 2011 Jal el dib gallery Surface libre
Collective
Exhibitions:
1 1974 Lebanon
Beirut hotel Phoenicia
2. 1975 Lebanon Beirut st elie cathedral debbas square
3. 1980 Lebanon Beirut chahine gallery
4. 1980 Lebanon jounieh a.t.c.l.
5. 1981 Brazil Sao Paulo
6. 1982 Lebanon Beirut hotel alexandre
7. 1982 Lebanon beirut chahine gallery
8. 1988 Liban Beyrouth gallery d’art 3m
9. 1988 Liban zouk musbeh gallery “les cimaises”
10. 1989 Liban beyrouth gallery d’art 3m
11. 2005 Liban jal el dib galerie surface libre
12. 2007 Liban jal el dib galerie surface libre
13. 2008 Liban antelias gulbenkian hall.
14. 2010 Lebanon Lucie Tutunjian gallery
15. 2010 Lebanon Surface Libre gallery
16. 2011 Lebanon Surface Libre gallery
Exposed works:
I. Armenian
Prelature in Lebanon
1. The Translators. Oil 145x195cm.
2. Christianity in Armenian. Oil 145x195cm.
3. The first Baptism in Armenia. Oil 145x195cm.
II.
Mekhitarist Father’s Church, Bikfaya, Lebanon
4. La Madona de la Vigne esco In Arcade (Altar) 350x220cm.
5. Seigneur prends pitié Oil 470x190cm.
6. Le Baptême Oil,circular 100x100cm.
III.
Mekhitarist Father’s Church, Raouda, Lebanon
7. Ste.Rita Oil 240x360cm.
8. La Cene. Oil 470x240cm.
9. St.Vartan. Pencil & Water-Colour 240x150cm.
10. Mother and Child. Pencil & Water-Colour 50x 70cm.
11. Mother and Child. Pencil & Water-Colour 100 x 70cm.
IV.
Levonian school ( Rome, Italy )
12. Etchmiadzine Cathedral ( IV th C.) Oil 80x100cm.
13. Heripsimiants Church ( VII th C.). Oil 80x100cm.
14. Aghtamar St.Khatch Church ( X th C.). Oil 80x100cm.
15. St.Garabed Monastery ( IX th C.). Oil 80x100cm.
V. Mekhitarist
convent ( Vienna, Austria )
16. La Madone. Pencil and water-colour 70x 50cm.
17. L’Enfant et la Pomme. Oil 100x80cm.
VI.
St Lazzaro Museum ( venice, Italy )
18. L’Annonciation Oil 100x60cm.
19. Apparition Oil 200x 50cm..
20. Post Christ. Oil 40x 50cm.
21. Devant la croix. Oil 200x120cm.
22. Apparition de la Vierge à Mékhitar. Oil In Arcade
480x340cm.
23. Premier Pas de Mékhitar. Oil In Arcade 480x340cm.
VII.
National museum ( Syria )
24. Les Aigles. Oil 100x 70cm.
25. Bouquet de fleur. Oil 100x 70cm.
VIII.
Cyprus Presidential Palace
26. Milky Way Oil 70x80cm..
27. The Sun Indian ink 50x70cm.
28. Between. Pencil and Water-Colour 28x34.5cm.
IX.
Armenian Holy Martyrs Church ( California, USA )
29. La Madone de la Vigne. Oil 140x100cm.
30. St. Gregoire. Fresco in Arcade 300x150cm.
31. St.Bartholome. Fresco in Arcade 300x150cm.
X.
The Holy Virgin Church ( Nicosia, Cyprus )
32. L’Annonciation. Oil 80 x 70 cm.
33. Descente de la Croix. Oil 240x150cm.
34. Ressurrection. Oil 240x150cm.
35. Tatios et Bartholomios. Oil 240x150cm.
36. L’Alphabet Oil 240x150cm.
37. St.Gregoire L’Illuminateur. Oil 130x110cm.
38. St.Georges. Oil 130x110cm.
39. Baptême. Fresco in Arcade 220x150cm.
40. Supper of EMMAUS. Fresco in Arcade 220x150cm.
41. Virgin Mary. Oil in Arcade(Altar) 180x120cm.
XI.
St Stephan Church ( Larnaca, Cyprus )
42. St.Gregoire. Oil 190x140cm.
XII.
St Vartan Church ( Kuwait )
43. Baptême du Christ. Oil in Arcade 80 x70 cm.
XIII.
The great house of Cilicia ( Antelias, Lebanon )
44. Holy Virgin of the Wheat. Oil in Arcade 160x115cm.
45. St.Krikor Loussavoritch. Oil 117 x97cm.
XIV.
St Hagop Church ( Achrafieh, Lebanon )
46. The Annuciation. Oil 100x 81cm.
XV.
St Gayane and St hiripsime Church ( Jbeil, Lebanon )
47. Holy Mary with St.Gayané and St.Hripsime Oil in arcade(Altar)
180x120cm.
48. Saint Georges. Oil 145x 97cm.
XVI.
St Haroutioun Church ( Jounieh, Lebanon )
49. Mesrop Machdotz. Oil 97x117cm
XVII.
Melkonian establishment ( Nicosia, Cyprus )
50. The Bird. Indian ink 70 x50cm.
51. The Hill. Indian ink 70 x50cm.
XVIII.
St Hagob Church ( Montreal, Canada )
52. St. Krikor de Nareg. Oil 230x145cm.
Printed
private stamps:
1. The Annuciation.
2. Descent From the Cross.
3. The Resurrection.
4. Tatios and Bartholome.
5. The Armenian Alphabet.
6. St. Grégoire L’illuminateur.
7. The Last Supper.
8. Vahan Mamigonian.
Illustration
of Books:
1. Sunday Reading
Bible.
2. Forty Holy Subjects from the Bible.
3. St.Hripsimé.
4. Explanation on “OUR FATHER”.
5. Edifying short stories.
6. April.
7. Abhasou an matar.
8. Al thalj Yamhou Khoutaha.
9. Several Book covers.
Medals
and decorations:
1. First Exhibition
Golden Palette ( 1972 ).
2. Gold Medal of St. Mekhitar ( 1975, Venice Italy ).
3. Who’s who international silver medal 2002.
Biography:
His biography
is published in the International Directory of 500 Worlds Leaders
of Influence both edit by A.B.I. Raleigh, NC ( USA ), in the International
who’s who in the 21st Century (Cambridge England 2002), and in the
Who’s Who in Lebanon.
Hobbies:
Music, Antiquity
collecting, reading, private video Film director.
Article:
Bishop Zareh AZNAVORIAN'S address at the opening ceremony of Zohrab's
exhibition of paintings. Translated by Sebouh Tavitian
It is a pleasure
and honour for me to greet, on behalf of the Armenian Church Christian
Education Department and in the name of His Holiness Catholicos
Karekin II, the presence of all of you at this exhibition of the
most recent creations of the renowned and great artist Zohrab.
It is not the
first time that Zohrab has exhibited his creations under this roof
and it is not the first time that we have had the opportunity to
talk about his works and his art. And yet each time marks a new
stage in the artist's life, and each time we confirm and relish
the freshness that springs forth from his canvases, to speak anew
and to communicate something new to us.
Genuine art
has a message for contemporary man as well as for men of all times.
The subject and the medium of expression chosen are not important.
The important is the message, a message that goes to the heart and
senses rather than the mind, and affects man emotionally. The true
artist reaches the heart directly by virtue of the fine sensitivity
and strong receptivity that nature has endowed him with. Thus, if
the musician perceives the world around him through sounds and the
synthesis of sound, the architect and sculptor through the symmetry
of shapes and structural lines, the producer through intonation,
pronunciation and movement, the choreographer through the expressive
symbolism of graceful bodily movement, the artist perceives the
world around him through lines and colour, light and shade and their
mystic interplay.
Any painting
that is a creation of authentic art is an eternity full of creative
dynamism, recreating within the viewer a spiritual moment, revealing
facts concealed within his human existence and absent from his consciousness,
activating sensitive veins and ploughing new furrows in his emotive
world and acting as interpreter for the inner man who is in a much
more intimate and deeper union with the outer world than we can
ever feel or visualise.
It is an evident
fact that in Zohrab's paintings we do not see only colours and lines.
The many shades of colour that are woven into a harmonious mosaic
are complemented by a dominating tendency for the theatrical and
dance like movements, full of grace and symbolism. You need only
look at the hands in Zohrab's painting, the ballet of the hands
that characterises, charms and leads to the heart of the painting.
Those hands are full of movement and feeling, tenderness and affection,
anxiety and expectance, entreatment and prayer, decisive tension
and concentrated passion.
Every single
painting, oil, chinese ink or aquarelle is an illuminated message
addressed to that man in search of the authentic man within man.
What does Zohrab
present? Life, man with his roots, his history, his ties, his loves,
his tendencies, his anguish, his suffering, his struggles.
At first glance
there is nothing out of the ordinary in Zohrab’s paintings. Bright
colours and delicate lines everywhere. A feeling of peace with an
inviting immediacy penetrates your being, a tranquillity that surrounds
and pervades you, flows out from every painting. A peaceful morning
breaks open before you, an advancing morning that penetrates your
soul and reaches the depths of your spiritual world, affecting you
deeply, troubling you emotionally and changing the peaceful morning
into a twilight of deep human crisis. This is Zohrab's philosophy
of observing life and reacting to it.
Focus your glance
for an instant on any painting and you will see on the faces of
all the characters created by Zohrab a touching sorrow, reflected
by the surroundings, that focuses attention on injustice and bitterness
created by human imperfections and errors. This sorrow thus becomes
an expression of resentment and protest against human society.
It should not
be misunderstood however. Sorrow yes, but pessimism is not present
in Zohrab's paintings. On the contrary, his paintings are the best
expressions of an optimistic outlook and a positive conviction,
without any escape from the real and objective life and aiming at
verity through the warmth and beauty of colours.
Even when presenting
the uglier facets of life and fiercer aspects of human brutality,
Zohrab’s brush veils beautifully the subject without ever hiding
it behind a curtain. It is a different mode of comprehension of
the world and an expressiveness that make the message carried by
the painting more transparent and suggestive.
There is also
the presence of symbols. Not only in his religious paintings but
in all his creations, Zohrab is the mystic artist who uses symbols
for completing the meaning within a painting and makes use of visible
symbols as an indispensable means in trying to make the invisible
comprehensible. Always faithful to the same principle, Zohrab uses
symbols that convoy the positive, the good, and the innocent. Lock
at any one of them whether a tree or a flower, a dove or any bird,
ful1 ears of wheat or bare branches, a cross or a KHATCHKAR, (beautiful)
human bodies or chaste souls, all are necessary and essential elements
forming the very substance of the painting and transforming the
material to convey the spiritual.
Zohrab's imaginative
talent has an irresistible suggestiveness that carries the mind
much farther than the visible, where the spirit is liberated from
its bonds and constrictions and expands into new horizons where
the unrealizable is realized and the unconquerable is conquered.
In fact Zohrab's
paintings present the transformed and spiritualized subject treated
idealistically. Thus lave is pure, bodies unblemished, kisses sacred,
stances bashful and virtuous, glances deep and far-reaching, grief
hushed, sorrow restrained, smiles delicate.
And particularly
the abundance of light everywhere. An abundance of light that brings
to life the colours with all their tints in Zohrab's, distinctive
and stained glass-like creations, and in particular flaming red.
And they sing a hymn to life and praise the good, the noble, the
beautiful and the perfect. The voice of genuine humanity seeking
man's transformation and ennoblement.
We thank Zohrab
and wish him every success.
►►
Text in Arabic
►► Articles
in French
►► Some
of the artist's artwork
►►
Meet
the artist in Art Direct Sale!
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