WATERTOWN — The Armenian Museum of America recently announced a new exhibition of 45 works by Armenian-American artist, Varujan Boghosian. “Fragments of Memory: The Art and Legacy of Varujan Boghosian,” offers an opportunity to experience the elegant, poetic constructions created by an artist who left a profound mark on the world of contemporary art.
Curated by Ryann Casey, the exhibition is sponsored by the Alan and Isabelle Der Kazarian Foundation.
Boghosian (1926–2020) was more than just an artist; he was a mentor, a teacher and a friend to many. His welcoming nature was particularly evident at Provincetown’s Berta Walker Gallery, where his encounters often left visitors with a newfound understanding of art and literature, and with smiles that carried the spirit of his personality. Boghosian was deeply committed to supporting young artists and fostering creativity in the next generation.
“Working only with found materials, Varujan created constructions and collages through the use of old and discarded objects. In the resulting elegant works, we find that the old and ordinary have been endowed with wonder and mystery, wit and pathos,” said Berta Walker. “Boghosian used his carefully culled raw materials to create works of pure and lyric visual poetry. Haiku in found objects.”
“Boghosian’s work is inspired by the past, by an appreciation of the lives and legacy of myth, of people and objects that have gone before, and a love of images and iconography. He is a sculptor, assembler, constructionist, beachcomber, scavenger, collector, historian, and conservator, and gathers the relics of our common experience, transforming them, often with humor, into poetic tributes,” wrote Gillian Drake in Cape Arts Magazine.
Boghosian was born in New Britain, Conn. His father emigrated from Armenia in the aftermath of the Genocide and was a cobbler, before going to work in the Stanley tool works. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Boghosian attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953 he received a Fulbright scholarship and went to Italy. When he returned, he became a student of the influential Joseph Albers at Yale School of Art and Architecture.
