Paul Guiragossian: Testimonies of Existence

On the 25th anniversary of Paul Guiragossian‘s death in 1993, the show features paintings from the 1960s to the early 1990s with elements drawn from the foundation’s archive that document his life and prolific career. The exhibition explores key moments in the artist’s practice during this period and the artist’s pivotal position in the history of modernism in the Arab world as well as among his generational peers. By drawing on a range of influences and interests from ancient and modern art histories to philosophy in his practice, Guiragossian developed an approach that has become immediately recognisable. Driven by an early curiosity with the human form, the artist spent his career investigating the realm between figuration and abstraction. Acutely aware of the physical and psychological effects of exile and displacement, his personal experience as a refugee played a role in his nuanced awareness of the body.
The exhibition’s title is drawn from a quote from the artist’s own reflections where he described a work of art as being “sealed for eternity” and absorbing the time and place of its creation. “They are testimony to our existence, and we will always find something new in them,” he said, upon winning a prize at the first edition of the Paris Biennale in 1959.