View source for Armen Agop

{{Short description|Egyptian-Armenian contemporary artist in Italy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Armen Agop
| birth_place      = Cairo, Egypt
| known_for        = Spiritual Contemporary Art
| website          = https://www.armenagop.com/
| movement         = Transcontemporary
| awards           = Prix de Rome, 2000; Umberto Mastroianni award, 2010; Premio Sulmona, Presidential Medal of the Italian Republic, 2013
}}
'''Armen Agop''' (born in 1969 in [[Cairo]]) is a contemporary Egyptian artist who is changing perspectives and pushing the boundaries on contemporary art.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ardia |first=C. A. Xuan Mai |date=12 December 2015 |title=5 Egyptian artists working with innovative practices |url=http://revolutionartnow.altervista.org/5-egyptian-artists-working-innovative-practices-c-xuan-mai-ardia/?doing_wp_cron=1665903189.8595941066741943359375 |website=RevolutionArtNow}}</ref> He is known for his spiritually charged contemplative works, which were described to reminiscence the harmony, balance and purity of the human soul.<ref name=":1" /> Agop engages meditative practices in his processes, prioritizing inwardness and inner monumentality. Soberness, slowness and renouncement of demonstrative abilities, are features that characterize his ascetic approach.<ref name=":2" />
==Early life and education==
[[File:Armen Agop Untitled 2018.jpg|thumb|Untitled (2018) granite sculpture by Armen Agop, installed at the front entrance of the El Alamein Hotel, El Alamein, Egypt.]]
Agop was born Armen Guerboyan to Armenian parents living in Cairo, Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artworldforum.com/?team=armen-agop|title=Art World Forum: Armen Agop|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929080117/http://www.artworldforum.com/?team=armen-agop |archive-date=29 September 2020 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fineart.gov.eg/eng/cv/cv.asp?IDS=378|title=Armen Agop Guerboyan|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> Growing up between these two cultures with ancient roots, drove him to develop a perspective beyond the geographical boundaries. The dialog between the two heritages created in him a continuous reevaluation of values, a personal perspective unconditioned by east and west or ancient and contemporary. Agop was also affected by the dry landscape of Egypt, saying, "It was in the desert, where there seems to be nothing, that's where I learned to see".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.widewalls.ch/egyptian-artists/armen-agop/|title=Egyptian Artists You Need to Know|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331132448/http://www.widewalls.ch/egyptian-artists/armen-agop/ |archive-date=31 March 2017 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://koru-hk.com/news/2011/Fine_Art_Asia_2011/cn/|title=Fine Art Asia 2011|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116185752/http://koru-hk.com/news/2011/Fine_Art_Asia_2011/cn/ |archive-date=16 November 2019 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Agop |first=Armen |date=December 19, 2021 |title=Armen Agop: Contemporary Spiritual Art |url=https://www.theculturium.com/armen-agop-contemporary-spiritual-art/ |website=The Culturium}}</ref>
Agop showed an interest in drawing and painting at a very young age and by the age of 13 was a student of the Armenian painter, Simon Shahrigian. He completed the Faculty of the Fine Arts at [[Helwan University]] in Cairo. After graduating, he received an assistant researcher scholarship to teach sculpture at the same university for three years.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Neo |first=Veronica |date=5 March 2016 |title=A WORD WITH SCULPTOR ARMEN AGOP |url=https://www.artandonly.com/a-word-with-sculptor-armen-agop/ |website=www.artandonly.com |access-date=9 December 2022 |archive-date=6 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606200948/https://www.artandonly.com/a-word-with-sculptor-armen-agop/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Career==
Armen Agop is one of the most important contemporary artists from Egypt and the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite news |last=El-Adawi |first=Reham |date=26 Aug 2023 |title=A stone and two mantras |work=Al Ahram Online |url=https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/50/1205/507073/AlAhram-Weekly/Culture/A-stone-and-two-mantras.aspx |access-date=26 August 2023}}</ref> From 1997-2000 Agop exhibited in diverse shows throughout Egypt and received the Sculpture prize of the Autumn Salon in 1998. In 2000, his national recognition was confirmed when he was awarded the Prix de Rome, the State Prize of Artistic Creativity in Egypt. After staying in Rome the first year on sponsorship, he moved to Pietrasanta, Italy where he continues to live and work today.  In 2011 he was awarded the Premio Umberto Mastroianni by the Biennale Internazionale di Scultura Della Regione Piemonte. In 2013, he was awarded the Premio Sulmona,  (Presidential Medal of the Italian Republic).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=El Adawi|first=Reham|date=November 2013|title=Romancing the stone|url=https://www.masress.com/en/ahramweekly/104807|journal=Al-Ahram Weekly}}</ref>
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His works are in the permanent collections of: the Egyptian Modern Art Museum, Egypt, [[Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art]], Doha, Qatar, Villa Empain/Boghossian Foundation in [[Belgium]], Aswan Open Air Museum, Aswan Egypt, [[Barjeel Art Foundation]], UAE, City of Neckarsulm, Germany, Giardino di Piazza Stazione in Barge, Italy, and Coral Springs Museum of Art in [[Florida, USA]].
== Works ==
Agop is known for an ascetic approach to his work.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Armen Agop|url=https://lkff.be/artist?name=armen-agop|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509220922/https://lkff.be/artist?name=armen-agop |archive-date=9 May 2018 |access-date=|website=}}</ref> In his own words, "Simplicity is very complicated". Agop's work has also often been described as "Contrasting Art" where the contemporary and the ancient meet; his artistic presence springs from his cross-cultural philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/artist/armen-agop-1|title=Armen Agop - 10 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy|website=www.artsy.net}}</ref> "The ancient and the contemporary may seem very different, but I think the essentials are the same", he said in ''Art Plural: Voices of Contemporary Art'' (2014).<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Art Plural: Voices of Contemporary Art|last=Peppiatt|first=Michael|publisher=Gatehouse Publishing|year=2014|isbn=978-9810784089|location=Fairport, NY}}</ref>
=== Touch ===
The Touch series breaks boundaries usually present in experiencing art. Agop invites the viewer to touch the sculptures and the sculptures move in response. By breaking the visual boundary he takes us beyond the traditional experience, to physical contact. This expands the viewer's experience and renders it more intimate by freeing them from the tradition of divinizing art and the usual "Don't Touch.".<ref name=":0" /> Agop says his work is about Freedom. The viewer is free to touch the sculptures and the sculptures are freed to move.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Jane A. |title=Art Plural Voices in Contemporary Art |publisher=Gatehouse Publishing PTE LTD |year=2014 |isbn=978-981-07-8408-9 |edition=1st |location=Singapore |pages=68–73 |language=en}}</ref> The granite sculptures balance on mere millimeters allowing for them to defy the stillness usually present in sculptures, moving once they are touched. By uniting the tangible and untangle in the viewer's experience, the relationship with art is then reconstructed, suggesting a new social consciousness between the viewer and the work of art.<ref name=":0" /> <ref>{{Cite web |last=Lukoff |first=Mijntje |date=3 April 2014 |title=Armen Agop « TOUCH » |url=https://lkff.gallery/userfiles/files/Armen_UK_FR1.pdf |website=Lkff Gallery |access-date=9 December 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209143918/https://lkff.gallery/userfiles/files/Armen_UK_FR1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
"Armen Agop's sculptures repose in a secretly precarious stillness. These seemingly anchored forms consent to movement when pressed to it by our hands. Later, they inexorably return to their original position. As a result of their curved shapes, these black granite metronomes gradually slow and stop in a subtle dialogue between light and shade." Victor Hugo Riego<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riego |first=Victor Hugo |title=Man and Stone |publisher=Lkff Gallery |year=2010 |location=Belgium |pages=26–29 |language=en, fr}}</ref>
=== Sufic ===
The term Sufic is derived from the spiritual heritage of [[Sufism]] in which the participants believe in the power of a single step to carry them beyond physical limitations.  Reflecting Agop's own meditative process,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://sculpturemagazine.art/armen-agop/|title=Armen Agop|date=September 2018|website=Sculpture Magazine|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116185754/https://sculpturemagazine.art/armen-agop/ |archive-date=16 November 2019 |access-date=}}</ref> the Sufic series is characterized by a single contemplative, round form. In an [[Asceticism|ascetic]] approach Agop explores inwardness by renouncing all other forms for the pursuit of one. The focus then is about discovering the internal world and unique personality of each sculpture. The sculptures share a common material, color, and shape, yet radiate their own internal energy and personal state of being, whirling in their own orbits representing invisible parts of human consciousness. reflecting Agop's own meditative process<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://artsawa.com/Uploads/Exhibitions/c2267cc2-1876-4e70-8c3c-e142423d572e.pdf|title=Undercurrent: Contemporary Egyptian Art|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403103732/http://artsawa.com/Uploads/Exhibitions/c2267cc2-1876-4e70-8c3c-e142423d572e.pdf |archive-date=3 April 2019 |access-date=}}</ref> <ref name=":3" /> <ref name=":0" /> <ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Dethal |first=Lor |date=1 June 2016 |title=Armen Agop |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/armen-agop |website=Wide Walls}}</ref>
"Each work may be considered as a contemporary microcosm, unnamed, self-referential, but rich of past and present identity, still tied to previous work but announcing the forthcoming one, which enables the viewer to participate in the discovery of his inner energy, sharing in the identity." Maurizio Vanni<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vanni |first=Maurizio |title=Armen Agop Double Identity |publisher=Bandecchi & Vivaldi |year=2012 |edition=1st |location=Pontedera, Italy |pages=6–9 |language=en, it}}</ref>
=== Transcontemporary ===
In 2015, Agop coined the term "Transcontemporary" which is a rejection of the limited concept of Contemporary Art.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clement-Davies |first=David |date=29 March 2021 |title=Sculptor Armen Agop: 'Simplicity is complex' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8ea798c7-f52a-4356-a926-b4e901ad81ca |website=Financial Times}}</ref> Contemporary is an ever-changing term, as what is now considered ancient was once contemporary. So, Agop mixes the 'ancient' with the 'contemporary' without obvious references to any time period, creating ultimate works that reject categorization.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/76043/Exhibition-of-new-works-by-Egyptian-artist-Armen-Agop-opens-at-Art-Plural-Gallery#.XdBFH5JKjOQ|title=Exhibition of new works by Egyptian artist Armen Agop|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927164816/https://artdaily.cc/news/76043/Exhibition-of-new-works-by-Egyptian-artist-Armen-Agop-opens-at-Art-Plural-Gallery |archive-date=27 September 2021 |access-date=}}</ref> By widening the time horizon, Agop believes that art can be relevant regardless of geopolitics, fashion or temporary mood. He believes that artworks derived from authentic human instinct are charged with experiences that are not limited to time or geographical boundaries. Therefore an artwork can touch the human aspect in us beyond its temporary condition. An authentic sculpture can cohabit equally in an ancient tomb and in a spacecraft without losing its radiating power.<ref>{{Cite web |last=de Boer |first=Gillian |date=26 January 2016 |title=BETWEEN MAN AND STONE: INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST ARMEN AGOP |url=https://www.artandonly.com/between-man-and-stone-interview-with-artist-armen-agop/ |website=Art and Only |access-date=9 December 2022 |archive-date=6 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606185316/https://www.artandonly.com/between-man-and-stone-interview-with-artist-armen-agop/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Agop's work continues to make profound statements that engage the viewer to explore the future, but keep a constant remembrance of the ancient times. <ref name=":4" />
"Agop's objects seem to "materialize" and to confer a "worldly appearance" to the artist's spiritual concerns. He interferes in the nature of materials. He makes them to adopt outlandish shapes. The piece of stone is no longer speaking as its natural being but as the artist's bare self. Minimalism was the nakedness of forms; Agop's sculptures are about the nakedness of the human condition.
"These sculptures are not altars but mirrors of the viewer's soul." Rubén de la Nuez<ref>{{Cite book |last=de la Nuez |first=Rubén |title=The Riddles of the Abstract Sphinx |publisher=Art Plural |year=2015 |edition=1st |location=Singapore |pages=5–9 |language=en}}</ref>
=== MANTRA ===
In the MANTRA series, Agop originates a gestural [[mantra]]. Instead of the transcendental vocal ritual Agop practices a physical one. With this gestural Mantra, he repurposes the repetitions into a meditative process of mark-making. Agop's innovative process involves renouncing his ability to paint or draw in favor of his belief in the strength of a single, sober point. Using the smallest possible pen nib (0.1mm), he applies colorful points on a black canvas repeating the gesture endlessly. The paintings become a materialization of time through the rituality of the gestural mantra, while invoking an optimistic source of light out of darkness.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDevitt |first=Jules |title=Q & A with Armen Agop |publisher=Meem |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-911561-06-4 |edition=1st |location=Dubai |pages=18–25 |language=en}}</ref>
"Armen Agop unites sculpture and painting in a meditation on the power of darkness to generate light. The complete synergy of body, mind and spirit lies at the core of Agop's practice, for whom art is a spiritual form of asceticism." Claudio Scorretti<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scorretti |first=Claudio |date=3 July 2020 |title=Artist Armen Agop |url=https://fondazioneimagomundi.org/en/artista/armen-agop-2/ |access-date=2023-02-20 |website=Fondazione Imago Mundi}}</ref>
==Awards==
*2000 – Prix de Rome<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clement-Davies |first1=David |title=Sculptor Armen Agop: ‘Simplicity is complex’ |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8ea798c7-f52a-4356-a926-b4e901ad81ca |access-date=23 June 2024 |work=Financial Times |date=29 March 2021}}</ref>
*2010 – International Umberto Mastroianni award<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 November 2010 |title=I vincitori del Premio Umberto Mastroianni 2010 |url=http://www.regione.piemonte.it/statico_piemonte_informa/piemonteinforma/wwwregionepiemonteit/notizie/piemonteinforma/diario/archivio/2010/novembre/i-vincitori-del-premio-umberto-mastroianni-2010.html |access-date=28 September 2022 |archive-date=29 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929155438/http://www.regione.piemonte.it/statico_piemonte_informa/piemonteinforma/wwwregionepiemonteit/notizie/piemonteinforma/diario/archivio/2010/novembre/i-vincitori-del-premio-umberto-mastroianni-2010.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*2013 – Premio Sulmona, Rassegna Internazionale D'Arte Contemporanea/Presidential Medal of the Italian Republic<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artprize.org/armen-agop|title=Armen Agop|website=www.artprize.org}}</ref>
== Collections ==
* Aswan Open Air Museum, Egypt<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aiss.gov.eg/sites/default/files/open_air_1.pdf|title=Aswan International Sculpture Symposium|last=Nawar|first=Ahmad|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205234624/http://aiss.gov.eg/sites/default/files/open_air_1.pdf |archive-date=5 February 2020 |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2022}}
* Bozzetti Museum Pietrasanta, Italy<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.museodeibozzetti.it/assets/files/mdb/collezione/artisti/s001464.php|title=AGOP Armen, Artisti in Collezione {{!}} Museo dei Bozzetti|website=www.museodeibozzetti.it|access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>
* Coral Springs Museum of Art, Florida, USA<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.coralsprings.org/government/other-departments-and-services/public-art-program/photo-gallery/coral-springs-museum-of-art|title=Coral Springs Museum of Art {{!}} Coral Springs, FL|website=www.coralsprings.org|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-date=11 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911121047/http://www.coralsprings.org/government/other-departments-and-services/public-art-program/photo-gallery/coral-springs-museum-of-art|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2022}}
* [[Gezira Center for Modern Art|Egyptian Modern Art Museum]], Egypt<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/6/592/Recognizing-Local-Art|title=Recognizing Local Art|website=EgyptToday|access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>
* [[Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art]], Qatar<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/76043/Exhibition-of-new-works-by-Egyptian-artist-Armen-Agop-opens-at-Art-Plural-Gallery#.XczhvpJKjOQ|title=Exhibition of new works by Egyptian artist Armen Agop|website=ArtDaily|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927164816/https://artdaily.cc/news/76043/Exhibition-of-new-works-by-Egyptian-artist-Armen-Agop-opens-at-Art-Plural-Gallery |archive-date=27 September 2021 |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2022}}
* [[Villa Empain]]/Boghossian Foundation, Belgium<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.villaempain.com/en/activities/various/jardins-en-fete/|title=Jardins en fête|website=Villa Empain – Fondation Boghossian|language=en-US|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-date=17 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917050423/http://www.villaempain.com/en/activities/various/jardins-en-fete/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Barjeel Art Foundation]], Sharjah <ref>{{Cite web |title=Armen Agop |url=https://www.barjeelartfoundation.org/artist/egypt/armen-agop/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=Barjeel Art Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
== External links ==
* Official [https://www.armenagop.com website]
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== References ==
{{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Agop, Armen}}
[[Category:1969 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century Egyptian sculptors]]
[[Category:21st-century Egyptian sculptors]]
[[Category:Egyptian artists]]
[[Category:Artists from Cairo]]
[[Category:Egyptian people of Armenian descent]]
[[Category:21st-century Armenian sculptors]]
[[Category:Egyptian contemporary artists]]
[[Category:Contemporary sculptors]]
[[Category:Egyptian painters]]
[[Category:Contemporary painters]]
[[Category:21st-century sculptors]]
[[Category:21st-century Egyptian artists]]
[[Category:21st-century Egyptian male artists]]