ARTISTIC ICON EMBRACES HIS ANCESTRY
The work of Garo Antreasian can be described as truly architectonic
New Mexico artistic icon Garo Z. Antreasian, now in his early 90s, is showing a cross-section of his Katie-bar-the-door lithographs in the “Garo Z. Antreasian: Innovation in Print” exhibition at the June Wayne Gallery in the Tamarind Institute building through Jan. 2017.
It is a gorgeous 22-piece installation in a beautiful exhibit space brimming with light, color and absolute precision in design and execution. Though Antreasian is known as one of Tamarind’s three co-founders with June Wayne and Clinton Adams, he also has a long and successful career as a draftsman and painter.
Antreasian’s stratospheric career spans 60 years, with works collected by 50 museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Though born in Indiana, his inspiration reaches back through his Armenian ancestry to ancient Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and African cultural iconography.
Antreasian embraces antique architectural structural elements, Islamic calligraphy and Middle Eastern mosaic patterns to such an extent that his work can be accurately described as truly architectonic.
Because of Antreasian’s heartfelt affinity for and understanding of geometry, his ideas, no matter how ephemeral in intention, have the physical integrity and strength of massive stone constructions.
There always has been an enormous cross-pollination between Antreasian’s painstaking bas-relief paintings and often, but not always, textured prints that this exhibition clearly illustrates.
In his painted works, Antreasian attaches balsa and basswood strips to the surface to ensure crisp and clean lines between segmented areas.
Though actually smooth and flat, “Y’es Em 1991” is a six-color lithograph that elegantly illustrates how the artist deals with segmented forms and compositional space. The joyful complexity of this conception based upon arcs and right angles is my favorite among many in the show.
“Riddle II (2014)” is the black-and-white version of three prints made over a twoyear period from the identical format. The 2013 versions were color proofs.
All three are exhibited side by side and wonderfully exemplify Antreasian’s skills at integrating calligraphy, architectonic structure and mosaic pattern. All three are knock-your-Tuesday-morning-socks-off visual treats.
In “Quantum 8 (1966),” Antreasian presents the viewer with two bright blue ovoid shapes on a black background. The hollow vertical centers of the ovals feature a finely gradated tonal shift from light gray to black. The blue ovals themselves are stepped toward the center, giving the overall design a three-dimensional quality.
In comparing this early suite of nine prints from the 1960s to works like “Riddle II” from 2014, it is clear that Antreasian was a mature artist when Tamarind was founded. Though there are changing intentions and ideas over the decades, the sophisticated high quality of execution does not vary.
Antreasian is an unusually competent and confident artist who shows off those positive attributes in his “Silver Suite Rate 6 (1968),” one of nine in a series drawn on aluminum plates and printed in seven runs. Not only are the final results stunning, but they even impart a sense of humor.
Overall, this is a do-not-miss exhibition for lovers of highquality craft, truly intelligent design and heartfelt subject matter.