San Diego, CA (1888PressRelease)
February 26, 2007 - Kazandjian, now 68 years old, was born in a Mediterranean country filled with contrasts between sunlight and darkness, like the powerful paintings of the artist Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Kazandjian started drawing at a very early age, inspired by the classic masterpieces shown in black and white in his family’s collection of books. At age 24, he settled in Paris, where he studied interior design and joined the group of surrealist artists, such as Geiger or Mohlitz, known as “fantastiques”. As a result of his meeting with publisher Pierre Argillet, he presented his first important solo exhibition in 1974. While still in Paris, fortune smiled upon him, granting him the opportunity to meet such notable artists as Bacon, Chirico, Coutaud, Calder, and Dali.
Fascinated by motion pictures, Kazandjian became a fervent filmgoer. This passion was reflected in his paintings, where he introduced various sequences, superimposed planes and zooms, all suggesting simultaneously the concept of motion and a new arrangement of space on the canvas, (see “The Cycle of Life”). The characters, objects, and landscapes are simplified, like in a negative slide, taking on a somewhat abstract quality.
This minimalist vision, similar to a mental representation, keeping the essential part of the subject, creates a special poetry of lingering feelings.
Now and then, the themes are repeated in infinite variations, evocative of Bach fugues, oriental leitmotivs, or recurring patterns on rugs, (see “The Garden of Delights”).
We are reminded of Monet and his exploration of the ever-changing light, or his “Cathedrals in Rouen”. Here, the reality is intangible and fades away, giving way to a multiplicity of interpretations just as illusory. The screens used by the artist merge background and foreground, suggesting a new optical dimension in the mind of the viewer.
Throughout all of Kazandjian works, we observe an extraordinary power of arrangement inherited from the masters, (see: “Sequences – The Venus by Giorgione”), but also from his training as an architect. The perspectives are left in evidence, forming a frame in which representation and geometric abstraction are superimposed, like the strata of our memory.
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