Arthur Sarkissian

Arthur Sarkissian () is an Armenian artist and painter.
Life.
Sarkissian attended the School of Fine Arts there in 1977, followed by the Yerevan State Pedagogical University (Drawing) in 1989. He lives and works in Yerevan, Armenia.
Art.
Sarkissian works in abstract art as a statement of post-soviet freedom of expression. He said in 2005, "my approach to painting developed from the desire to free myself from Socialist Realism."
His canvases combine painting and silkscreen printing, incorporating text, photographs, signs, architectural images and extracts from other paintings, fusing oil paint with found ephemera.
Such a polyglot, polysemic art is not unique to Sarkissian. We see his style anticipated by Robert Rauschenberg, and before him Kurt Schwitters. We even see its textures and practices, as well as philosophical positions, reflected in the work of such disparate predecessors as Warhol, Cornell, Miro, Malevich, and, of course, Picasso. Among other things, Sarkissian demonstrates that the “collage aesthetic” – the simultaneously disjunctive and conjunctive qualities that uniquely define modern composition – remains one of 20th century art’s most significant and enduring legacies. Indeed, this collage aesthetic provides the perceptual crucible in which the dialectic described above is forged, and it defines the particular visual world in which Sarkissian finds his expression.
His installation artwork includes the work "Closed Session", comprising a row of seven chairs of varying sizes, each standing on four lit lightbulbs; described by Sonia Balassanian, curator of the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (ACCEA), as a "satirical reference to self-aggrandizing decision-makers."
His work is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in Yerevan.
Works.
Sarkissian's works include:
Exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions:
Group exhibitions: