Varujan Boghosian Art

David Rankin, American (b. 1946) Rocky Hillside, (1990) Oil on paper Hand signed lower right, signed and titled verso. 30 x 22 1/2 inches David Rankin is a New York-based, British-born Australian post-war and contemporary artist known for his expressionistic abstract paintings. His work can be categorized by his use of quick, loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of scribbles on a page. Rankin works predominantly in oil painting and acrylic on canvas, but also works with paper, prints, sculptures and ceramics. Rankin has held over 100 one-person exhibitions in cities across the world, including New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Mexico, Vienna, Berlin and Cologne, as well as all over Australia. Represented in many of the world’s leading public and private collections and museums, David Rankin’s work is featured in Australia’s leading institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery. David Rankin was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1946 then emigrated to Australia with his family in 1948. He spent his childhood in the 1950s in the semi-rural Port Hacking region South of Sydney and his teenage years in country New South Wales, from Hay, Wagga Wagga and Albury in the South to Bourke and Brewarrina in the North. Rankin is self-taught, developing his techniques and ideas in the outback towns of his youth. He was inspired by the greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Paul Klee as well as being influenced by the history of Buddhism and Asian art. In his travels before he arrived in Sydney in 1967 he developed a concept of what he wanted to achieve as an Australian artist. His dream was to express the anima, the life spirit or the essence of God in all nature. As an Australian artist he believed could bring the elements of Western Art together with an understanding and love for the cultures of Asia and the Australian Aborigine. He also felt that as Australia was closer to Asia than Europe it made sense to think about the art of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists, and that one could not be an authentic articulate Australian artist without a love and respect for the artistic and spiritual expressions of the various Aboriginal artists, peoples and cultures. His work combined elements of Abstract Expressionist painting with Jewish and Aboriginal influences. In 1979 his first wife, Jennifer Mary Roberts (née Haynes) died. Rankin subsequently met his current wife Lily Brett, whose own life was etched by tragedy with her parents being survivors of the Holocaust. She too migrated to Australia as a child after the Second World War in 1948. The artist recounts that his empathy for Lily and the pity for his first wife's death fused into what he calls "the dark blessing of my life." The darkness was transformed into images. The author Dore Ashton writes that the events of 1979 and the fire which ravished his studio in 1997 and burnt his art works and many personal possessions, had a profound impact on his work. Having personal life experiences as his subject matter, Rankin's paintings contemplate these things. For example, his Jerusalem series followed a trip to Jerusalem in 1988, which then led to his Golgotha works. His travels to the Australian, American and Mexican deserts became the subject matter for many of his canvases, such as Ridge – Mungo, Golden Prophecy – San Antonio, Grey Sonora Landscape and then led to his Witness Series. From the fire in his studio he then painted Buddha and Flames. He illustrated two books by Lily Brett on the holocaust and explored the theme further in his huge work The Drowned and The Saved from a book by Primo Levi of the same name. Through Brett he encountered Jewish mythology and painted judaica imagery, Black...

Reaching, ca. 1980. Cast bronze. Signed in lower region on wrist. A rare example from the artist's later period influenced by figurative abstraction with expressionist tendencies. James Edward Lewis (August 4, 1923 – August 9, 1997) was an African-American artist, art collector, professor, and curator in the city of Baltimore. He is best known for his role as the leading force for the creation of the James E. Lewis Museum of Art, an institution of the HBCU Morgan State University. His work as the chairman of the Morgan Art Department from 1950 to 1986 allowed for the museum to amass a large collection of more than 3,000 works, predominantly of African and African diasporan art.[1] In addition, he is also well known for his role as an interdisciplinary artist, primarily focused on sculpture, though also having notable examples of lithography and illustration. His artistic style throughout the years has developed from an earlier focus on African-American history and historical figures, for which he is most notable as an artist, to a more contemporary style of African-inspired abstract expressionism. Early and personal life James E. Lewis was born in rural Phenix, Virginia on August 4, 1923 to James T. Lewis and Pearline (Pearlean) Harvey.[5] Lewis' parents were both sharecroppers. Shortly after his birth, his father moved to Baltimore for increased job opportunity; James E. was subsequently raised by his mother until the family was reunited in 1925. They lived for a short time with distant relatives until moving to a four-bedroom house on 1024 North Durham Street in East Baltimore, a predominantly African-American lower-class neighborhood close to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Lewis' primary school, PS 101, was the only public school in East Baltimore that served black children. Lewis grew up in a church-going family, his parents both active members of the Faith Baptist Church, devoting the entirety of their Sundays to church activities. His parents worked a variety of different jobs throughout his youth:[6] his father working as a stevedore for a shipping company, a mechanic, a custodian, a mailroom handler,[6] and an elevator operator.] His mother worked as both a clerk at a drugstore[7] and a laundress for a private family.[4] Lewis' primary exposure to the arts came from Dr. Leon Winslow, a faculty member at PS 101 who Lewis saw as "providing encouragement and art materials to those who wanted and needed it." In fifth grade, Lewis transferred to PS 102. Here, he was able to receive specialized Art Education in Ms. William's class under the guidance of Winslow. He was considered a standout pupil at PS 102 as a result of his introduction to the connection between the arts and the other studies. His time spent in Ms. Pauline Wharton's class allowed for him to experiment with singing, to which he was considered a talented singer. His involvement in this class challenged his earlier belief that singing was not a masculine artistic pursuit. He was able to study both European classics and negro spirituals, which was one of his earliest introductions to arts specific to American black culture. Under Ms. Wharton's direction, he was also involved in many different musical performances,[6] including some works of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project.[8] Lewis attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, where his love of the arts was heightened through his industrial art class with Lee Davis...

Raul Diaz (Argentina, b.1950). Abstract Figure, ca. 1970s. Canved Walnut. Measures 17 inches tall including wood base. Carved signature in lower region. Excellent condition. An ear...

Abstract Expressionist Collage in Acrylic on Paper Bright, saturated abstract painting with collage by California-based artist Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). Bold red,...

"Anti-tank Hedgehog 3" Sculpture 13 x 13 x 13 in Edition 1/1 by ILLYA TIGOIS Unique sculpture Materials: steel 3-8mm. Welding, metalworking. ABOUT THE ARTIST Illya Trofymchuk is...

"Hexagon 3" Wall Sculpture 39 x 24 x 5 in Ed. 1/1 by ILLYA TIGOIS Title: Hexagon 3 Unique sculpture Medium: steel & acrylic varnish,gold leaf ABOUT THE ARTIST Illya Trofymchuk is...

In this bronze sculpture the artist (unknown) has welded together a group of totems or monuments into a unified piece. T Neo-Dada Abstract Sculpture: Assemblages In contrast, abstra...

Beautiful abstract expressionist collage by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b.1957). Composed of two contrasting sections of light blue and brown, this piece has layers of ...

Sam Francis Suite of Four Limited Edition Ceramic Plates, ca. 2000 Set of four (4) limited edition ceramic plates in original museum box Edition of 2000 7 × 7 inches Unframed Note: M...

This elegant pedestal-size bronze was hand-fabricated, not cast. A large, 9-foot tall version of "Itzamna Stella" in stainless steel is installed outdoors at the Reading Public Museu...

Welded, brazed sculpture on wooden base This is not signed or dated This work is unsigned. We were told it was the work of Seymour Lipton but as there is further documentation we are selling it as attributed and cannot guarantee it as such. Seymour Lipton (1903 – 1986) was an American abstract expressionist sculptor. He was a member of the New York School who gained widespread recognition in the 1950s. He initially trained as a dentist, like fellow sculptor Herbert Ferber, receiving his degree from Columbia University in 1927. In the late 1920s, he began to explore sculpture, creating clay portraits of family members and friends. His early choices of medium changed from wood to lead and then to bronze, and he is best known for his work in metal. Like his contemporary, Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock, and Arshile Gorky Lipton was influenced by Carl Jung’s work on the unconscious mind and the regenerative forces of nature. He translated these two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional maquettes that enabled him to revise his ideas before creating the final sculpture. The forms that Lipton produced during this period were often zoomorphic, exemplifying the tension between the souls of nature and the automatism of the machine. He made several technical innovations, including brazing nickel silver rods onto sheets of Monel to create rust resistant forms. Seymour Lipton is best known for his textured torch welded metal sculptures...

Peter Voulkos Ceramic Sculptural Dish, ca. 1985 Sculpted ceramic Hand-signed by artist, Incised signature on the base. 1.5 x 11.5 inches This charger plate by Voulkos features a Gree...