Hagop Hagopian: Mannequins and Landscapes

Tufenkian Fine Arts is pleased to announce, Hagop Hagopian: Mannequins and Landscapes, a solo exhibition of paintings and watercolors by Hagop Hagopian. This exhibition will feature Hagopian’s mannequin paintings which the artist explored during the last ten years of his life as well as a selection of watercolor landscapes. The exhibition will be on view from June 30 to September 16, 2023 with a reception to be held at the gallery on Saturday, July 15 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

Hagop Hagopian works with a unique style that is praised for its pursuit of perfection. Hagopian has a linear approach to composition, often accented with serene and subdued colors. His works exude a sense of nostalgia and silence and in his landscapes one can witness Hagopian’s intense devotion to the Armenian countryside. This affection translates into careful brushstrokes and a graceful treatment of each natural element.

This exhibition presents two distinct bodies of work within Hagopian’s celebrated oeuvre — his emotionally charged mannequin paintings and the artist’s tender landscapes of the Armenian countryside. The selected works in this exhibition probe Hagop Hagopian's interest in the exploration of human emotions, relationships, and the enigmatic nature of life. The use of mannequins in Hagopian’s later paintings serve as a means to convey universal experiences and sentiments that are both intensely personal and familiar to viewers. The landscapes depicted by Hagopian in his watercolors are often restrained in color, muted and desolate, with lines sharply delineating the crystalline architectonics of their mountains, fields, and plains.

Hagop Hagopian, born in 1923 in Alexandria, Egypt, is considered as one of the most important Armenian artists of the past century. His family fled to Egypt during the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and while in Egypt he would paint from the painful life of his compatriots who escaped the Genocide. In 1944, Hagopian moved to Cairo to study at the Cairo Academy of Fine Arts and in 1952 he was sent to Paris to continue his studies in art under André l’Hote. Hagopian’s works are included in numerous public and private collections, including The Museum of Fine Arts, (Cairo, Egypt); The National Gallery of Armenia, (Yerevan, Armenia); Zimmerly Art Museum (, NJ); Georgia State Museum of Arts, (Tbsili, Georgia); National Art Museum of Ukraine, (Kiev, Ukraine).