Charles Garabedian

Docent Researcher_________Marcy Katz

Artist: Charles Garabedian

Dates of birth : 1923

Place of birth: Detroit, Mi of Armenian Heritage

Current residence: Santa Monica

Education: MA University of California, LA 1961

Major Shows/Galleries: most recent show was at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art from

Jan 22- May 1, 2011 representing his entire career of 50 years. His sculpture work was in

the Whitney Biennial

Employment: 60’s to 90’s he taught at UCLA, CalState University at Northridge, the Cal

Institute fo the Arts, the College of Creative Studies and Cooper Union among others.

Other: His mom died when he was two. His father became crippled and was left to raise

3 young children, so Charles grew up in an orphanage until age 9. He then moved to

California with his father, an uncle and his sisters in the midst of the depression. They

bought a chicken ranch in San Gabriel which failed.

A full bio can be found here: http://www.lalouver.com/resource/garabedian_bio/

Garabedian_bio.pdf

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-garabedian-

12734

Media/Techniques

Media: painting and drawing and later sculpture

Techniques Employed

Contextual information

Influences (historical/personal/political) his Armenian roots, the depression years, his tour

of duty in North Africa during WW2. Also influenced by other artists like Ed Carrillo, and

especially Ed Moses

Expressive Qualities (realistic, naturalistic, etc.):

http://www.santabarbaraca.com/blog/index.cfm/2011/1/Quote: “His persistently individual

exploration of figure, landscape and subject matter paved the way for new generations of artists

who demonstrated a renewed focus on imaginative representations of the figure.”

He uses mythology as a reference and a guide for modern and contemporary man. His use of the

Iliad is one example

Subject Matter/ Themes/ Concept dealt with in the work: consistently narrative using figure and

landscape despite trends towards abstract over a 50 year career.

From LA Times, Jan 26,1990 by Cathy Curtis…

“Rummaging around in the rich trove of Charles Garabedian's recent paintings, a viewer finds

dollar signs, antique Greek torsos, square Aztec bodies, Pacific Northwest masks, arrowheads,

artichokes and clenched fists. A rhythmic pulse of images invented, repeated and discarded fuel

the larger, more intricate works. Rows of identical uptilted women's heads part like waves in an

enchanted sea. Clumsy figures the artist calls "mutants" lurch into wild "e" positions in a calmly

classical landscape. A Greek amphitheater looks oddly like a spaceship.”” Sure, sometimes the

artist goes over the deep end and works so nakedly the stuff begins to look corny. In "Man

Tearing His Heart Out," a Pygmy-like fellow reaches into his chest to remove the offending

organ. A nearby Lorelei seems to be the source of the poor guy's anguish. The subject for this

painting was recurring in his work. He did it in different media.

Other Comments/ Information about work or life

Anecdotal Information and Quotes

He was of the period of Art in the 60’s in Los Angeles . At 38 he was the oldest of a group

show, “Six Painters of the Rear Guard” at the Ceeje Gallery in 1962 just after graduating from

UCLA.

Quote from an interview by Anne Ayres, Aug 21-22, 2003:http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/

interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-garabedian-12734

“Yes, well, I’ve described my efforts in a funny way as the idea of trying self-consciously to

work with the hope of uncovering the unconscious, which is you might call a form of self-

analysis, or accidental self-analysis or a stream of consciousness. I painted with a stream of

consciousness looking for the unconscious, and of course, it shows up in the work where at some

point you hope that your work will mean something. At times you’ll say, “Who cares? I don’t

care; I just like to work, that’s all.” And that may be true, but there’s also the thing that secretly

you say, “I’d like to think that I have done something. And you say, “Well, the thing that I want

done is an uncovering of my soul.”

References:

Books/Magazines/web links to articles

highlight which articles may be worth making a hard copy for the binder and give complete information

on references so that they can be found in the future

http://www.santabarbaraca.com/blog/index.cfm/2011/1/

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-charles-garabedian-12734