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  • Barooshian retrospective at ALMA

    Watertown TAB & Press, MA
    May 26 2006

    Barooshian retrospective at ALMA

    By Ann Hablanian/ Correspondent
    Friday, May 26, 2006 - Updated: 11:07 AM EST

    New York artist Martin Barooshian's relocation to his home-state
    Massachusetts is being commemorated by a retrospective of his work at
    the Armenian Library and Museum of America.

    Spanning over half a century (1956-2006), Barooshian's body of
    work, like that of many artists, passes through definable periods,
    yet his work has a distinct continuum. Traces from Greek mythology
    merge or reappear in altered form to be further explored. Vividly
    colored roosters, disappearing Cheshire cats with leonine faces and
    storybook Alices re-create a wonderland of their own.



    Barooshian is not an artist who alleviates his angst by dabbing
    paint on canvas; immediate and short-lived gratification is not his
    destination. As a superior printmaker, he brings precision and
    meticulous attention to color nuance to bear on every inch of canvas.
    In his latest paintings, which take on a geometric symmetry rendered
    in neo-pointillism, the impression is that each dot was weighed,
    balanced and analyzed. While the overall effect is a vibrant
    scintillation, it suggests an amazing internalization of push-pull or
    complementary color theory, as evidenced in his canvases, "The Four
    Seasons" and "Colors, Primary, Secondary."

    There is no question that Barooshian's early work shows some
    influence by Arshille Gorky and his contemporaries. Yet already in
    the 1960s these "gardens of erotic delights" reflect Barooshian's
    intense attention to detail and artistic control. His amorphous
    biomorphic forms, where the animal and vegetable worlds merge into
    one, are superimposed by cubistic elements, and influenced by his
    book-illustration prints, such as the "Alice in Wonderland" series.

    In the 1970s, one sees the emergence of a clear individual style
    with strong surreal tendencies. This is an exciting period, perhaps
    the artist's first signature period. "Vision 15," also titled "Enigma
    of the Armenian Sphinx" (48x40-inch oil on canvas with gold leaf), is
    indeed a vision. One might state that all of Barooshian's works are
    visions, from exotic birds in small color intaglio etchings to larger
    paintings.

    Some of the same images appear in the 1990s, such as the more
    spacious and less content-packed "The Dream," where flying men, face
    segments, lotus blossoms and vertebrae decorated with flowers, float
    among amoeboid-segmented bodies, and a woman with smooth young face
    and muscular body. Sounds bizarre? Not really. The overall impression
    is that this artist is a seeker of beauty and harmony.

    The works of the 2000s are no less enticing. The merging of ideas is
    evident, such as in "Mardi Gras in New Orleans," a small painting
    (20x15-inch) with its lush painterly quality and flat geometric
    squares. Nor is the work all brow-imposed eroticism. There is humor
    in a work such as the "Boogie Woogie" dancers (2006); and re-emerging
    are the storybook creatures in a pointillism such as "The Cat, Bird,
    and Duck" (2003) a 20x20-inch piece. "Bach, Beethoven, and Shubert"
    does not clearly define the music or the masters (fugue, symphony or
    Lieder?), one is left wondering why the names within the work, except
    as the artist's license to expose his skill and give homage to his
    favorite composers. In general these pointillist-like works such as
    "Dada Swing" and "Hip Hop/Hip Hop" are highly refined. If at first
    glance these works remind one of classroom geometric coloring
    exercises, the comparison ends where complexity and interwoven detail
    begin.



    Barooshian's synthesis of acknowledged American painters of the
    last century is complex. It is deliberate. It is intelligent. In
    reviewing this retrospective, an overall impression is that an
    analytical brain is holding the paintbrush.

    Barooshian, with degrees from the Boston Museum School of Fine
    Arts and Tufts University, a graduate degree from Boston University
    and further training in Europe (Paris mainly), has won fellowships
    and awards, and his works are in the permanent collection of museums
    such as the Metropolitan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at
    the Boston MFA, galleries in Washington, D.C., and countries such as
    Armenia, Canada and India.

    What Barooshian needs and should achieve is well-deserved
    recognition as one of America's outstanding artists of the latter
    part of the 20th century and beyond.

    Barooshian's art

    Martin Barooshian: a 50Year Retrospective of Paintings and Prints
    opened on May 5 and continues through May 28 at the Contemporary Art
    Gallery (third floor) at the Armenian Library & Museum of America, 65
    Main St. Call 617-926-ALMA (2562).
    From: Baghdasarian
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