*PAUL GUIRAGOSSIAN (Liban, 1926-1993)

The Visit Oil on canvas 61 x 51 cm signed lower left "PAUL. G.", signed "Paul Guiragossian", dedicated to "Sebu & Seta on Saturday 13, June 1970" on the back. A certificate from the Paul Guiragossian Foundation will be given to the buyer. Private collection, California *This lot is presented as a temporary import. Millon Auction House is honored to offer the exceptional work, The Visit painted in the late 1970s by Lebanese master Paul Guiragossian. The Visit reveals the artist's strong expressionist imagery and strength to create a masterpiece from a monotone, yet warm palette that confirms his aesthetic exploration. Born in Jerusalem in 1926 to survivors of the Armenian genocide, Paul Guiragossian's passion for painting became his refuge from the cruelty of the world around him at a very young age. His family was poor and the artist spent his early childhood under the care of the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Saint-Paul de Vence, far from his mother who worked to provide an education for her brothers. This separation at an early age led to his continued exploration around the theme of motherhood. He depicted his personal struggles to distance himself from her and yearn for that enveloping maternal love. His faceless figures delineated by thick brush strokes evoke the human condition. Depicted statically or in motion, her compositions seek a balance between an expressionist touch and emotions through a lively rhythm of soft, rounded lines. Much of his work focuses on the essence of the human form. Between abstraction and figuration, the artist explores the fundamentals of humanity; what does it mean to be human? Guiragossian's wife and children form a core of her portraiture along with numerous self-portraits and anonymous figures. The tender relationship between mother and child is also a frequent theme in her work. Guiragossian's distinctive style consists of long vertical brushstrokes to represent the bodies of her figures, creating abstract, elongated forms that echo Byzantine icons. Exile, separation, deportation, but also reunion and family are also often present in his work. "Facts of existence are the main source of my artistic experience. Art for me starts from the "real". At the beginning, an artist paints his surroundings, and like a child, the artist would ask many questions, a true devoted artist never stops questioning. The reality of everything is a question in itself. An artist, who has no answer, stops at limited borders, he will not move forward, does not evolve. I was born in a very modest place, therefore, I paint children, mothers, families, I paint misery, birth, death, and I paint the noise. I paint the tight-knitted groups that are lost, scarred, expelled, not knowing where is their next destination, I paint the neighbourhoods which witnessed war, and hunger. Fear, genocide, siege, illness and death, from all of these ingredients I explode and I paint".