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An artist's life between Beirut, Dresden and Berlin

Topic: Art Academies and Academic Exchange
Periods:
  • 1974
Artists:
  • Emmanuel Guiragossian
  • A. R. Penck
  • Hernando León
  • Anton Paul Kammerer
  • Goran Djurovics
  • Jürgen Wenzel
  • Bernhard Hahn
The Armenian-Lebanese artist Emmanuel Guiragossian began his studies in Dresden in 1974 and built a friendship with painter A. R. Penck.
Interview with Emmanuel Guiragossian in his studio in Berlin, 22.06.2022

Emmanuel Guiragossian (born 1954 in Beirut) belongs to an Armenian-Lebanese family that has produced many generations of artists. In 1974, he came to Dresden in order to study painting at the University of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Bildende Künste) with Prof. Hernando Léon. Guiragossian finished his diploma with a series of large oil painting titled Meine Schmerzen – Libanon, which dealt with the Armenian genocide.

After his degree, Guiragossian lived in West Berlin and, once the Lebanese civil war was over, in Beirut. He founded several museums and held a professorship at the American University of Beirut. In the 2000s, he also ran an art gallery in Dresden, where in 2007 he showed a retrospective exhibition with works of his former fellow students, including Anton Paul Kammerer, Goran Djurovics, Jürgen Wenzel and Bernard Hahn.

In the interview, Guiragossian talks about his time as a student and reminisces about his insiring friendship with the A.R. Penck (1939 – 2017, pseudonym for Ralf Winkler). The exchange between Guiragossian and Penck was also the subject of an exhibition about the artistic relations of the GDR and Lebanon in 2022. The exhibition called Distant Divides was curated by Clementine Butler-Gallie for Halle 14 - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig.

Related articles

  • Distant Divides. Zwischen Libanon und Deutschland
    Periods:
    • 2022/04/30–2022/08/28
    Exhibitions
    Art historian and curator Clementine Butler-Gallie provides insight into the exhibition Distant Divides. Between Lebanon and Germany, which took place in Halle 14 on the grounds of the Baumwollspinnerei in Leipzig.
    Artists:
    • Mahmoud Dabdoub
    • Emmanuel Guiragossian
    • Franziska Pierwoss
    • Ghassan Salhab
    • Siska
    • Paola Yacoub
    • Etel Adnan
    • Hiba Alansari & Mahmoud Alansari
    • Nour Sokhon & Elisabeth Liselotte Kraus
    • Chaza Charafeddine
    • Fouad Elkoury
    • Gilbert Hage
    • Mohamad Kanaan
    • Arthur Laidlaw
    • Zad Moultaka
    • A.R. Penck
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