PRESS RELEASE
The two large paintings exemplify the words that Garabedian has used to guide 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 largest works ever made by the artist. In The Spring for Which I Longed, which measures 12 x 24 feet, two female figures dominate the foreground. One figure lies horizontal, pressed toward the lower portion of the canvas and partially out of view, while the second, vertical figure rests in the lap of an abstract configuration on the right side of the canvas. The figures are anchored on a narrow strip of land; a small island is depicted on the left. The scene is dominated by a turbulent ocean: half in daylight, half in twilight, divided by the crest of a huge wave out of which a single eye stares. September Song, which measures 13 x 25 feet, depicts a solitary nude figure lying in a simple wood boat. The boat, unguided, is floating close to a small verdant outcropping in a vast sea, while a large ice-mass looms in the distance. The two canvases are accompanied by a series of works on paper in which Garabedian has pushed to new levels his idiosyncratic mixture of representational and abstract imagery. Addressing the artist’s ongoing interest inmythology and literature, the images seem both unfiltered by consciousness and accomplished portrayals of the wild and vivid imaginings of an intelligent mind. Charles Garabedian was born in Detroit in 1923, and moved to California at age nine. During World War II he was a staff sargeant gunner in the 8th Air Force, stationed in England. Following the war, on the GI Bill, Garabedian studied literature and philosophy at UC Santa Barbara. He went on to study history at the University of Southern California, and earned his BA in 1950. Thereafter, Garabedian pursued several occupations that included working on the railroad. At age 33 he entered the University of California, Los Angeles to study art, and received an MA in 1961. Garabedian has exhibited internationally and has had work included in important museum exhibitions including the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial in 1975 and 1985; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976; the Venice Biennale in 1976 (also 1982 and 84); The High Museum Atlanta, 1980; The La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, 1981; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, MA, 1983; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1984; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 1989; the Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan in 1991 and the Corcoran Biennial in 1993. More recently a survey exhibition of works on paper was mounted at the Luckman Gallery, California State University, East Los Angeles, and traveled to the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum in Utah, 2003-2004. Garabedian received a National Endowment for the
Art Fellowship in 1977, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
in 1979, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters award in 2000. |