Jean Boghossian (Liban, 1949)

Untitled Acrylic and mixed technique on canvas 120 x 160 cm painted in 2020 signed and dated on the back Private collection, Belgium Born in Aleppo in 1949, Boghossian comes from a family of jewelers for whom he worked while studying economics and sociology at the University of Saint Joseph in Beirut. In 1975, the Lebanese civil war forced Boghossian to leave the country and move to Belgium. More than three decades ago, Boghossian decided to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts in Boitsfort, Brussels, while continuing to run the family business. In 1992, together with his brother and father, he established the Boghossian Foundation at the Villa Empain. Overall, Boghossian is one of the few artists who experiment with applying fire and smoke to various works. Fire, being his preferred artistic language, is used through a wide range of flashlights and various other fire instruments. Having made a transition just over a decade ago to abstraction, Boghossian's art may evoke a contemporary view of the Zero and Fluxus movements, although he claims not to belong to any art movement. The objects Boghossian has attacked through flame include canvas, paper, books and plastics, sometimes leaving behind patterns of perforation. In his paintings and drawings, Boghossian uses a variety of media, including watercolor, charcoal, oil, pigments, and acrylic paint, with techniques that include folding, collaging, and tearing. Boghossian's sculptures range from wood to polystyrene, clay, marble and bronze, some of which are also flame treated.