 The Stephan Bagradian Museum is pleased to announce in conjunction with Bridge ArtSpace, the first major traveling retrospective of Stephan Bagradian's work in thirty years. The loaned work will be from the "Ani" collection 1922- 1927 May 14th- June 9th, 2017 Opening reception: May 14th, 4PM Bridge ArtSpace Soi Charoen Krung 51, Khwaeng Yan Nawa, Khet Sathon, Bangkok Kingdom of Thailand 10120 bridgeartbkk@gmail.com The World of Bagradian 1927  "Sympathetic Visions: Stephan Bagradian and the Artists of his Time" Currently running through the end of October 2017, this exhibit will feature Bagradian's extensive collaborative work with the leading artists of his time. Below are a sampling of the works that will be displayed. In 1926, G.I. Gurdjieff (above, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Mina Loy and her husband, Arthur Cravan paid Bagradian a visit while he worked as state artist in Ani to work on an unrealized project. Through the recently released memoirs of Bagradian, we have learned for the first time what has happened. This is the last known photograph of Picabia.  We are very excited to have been granted special permission by the estate of John Cage to include the work Cage did while staying with Stephan Bagradian in 1962, which culminated in the release of his rare album "Lake Van Nuys" Cage's work, "Variations (a)" is in three parts and is notable for being the last prepared piano piece that John Cage wrote. In the first part, transparencies are used with four circles drawn on them. The circles are cut up in to 8,4,4 and 4 pieces respectively, which are to be dropped on a map of the delineated performance space (in this case, the shore of Lake Van around a half submerged grand piano), creating places where noise actions are to be performed. The piano is only to be used if more than one part of the circle lands on it. There is no indication of duration of this part.  The second part takes place as the audience, who has been instructed to bring a pocketful of spare change, throws their change at the grand piano’s exposed strings. The pace of this coin throwing is to determined by a metronome, which has been set by the oldest or the youngest member of the audience- as determined by a coin toss. The second section ends when all of the audience's coins are depleted. The final part of this performance is more traditional. A classical pianist is instructed to play “Kroonk” by the composer Komitas. The piano, which may be mostly underwater depending on the tide, will also have its’ sound affected by the coins which will have been thrown into it, in the second part of "Variations (a)." A recording of "Variations (a)" will play in the main hall for the extent of the exhibition.  Stephan Bagradian was instrumental in getting the permission from Kharpert's local authorities to use the ancient castle of Harpoot, located in the hills above Kharpert to hang a massive sheet of scrim from Robert Irwin's "Untitled" only was up for three days but left a lasting impression on all that saw it. Robert Irwin's 1971's "Untitled (Fortress/ Light/ Volume)"
  On loan from Le Musée des Archives nationales, Bagradian’s chess correspondence with Marcel Duchamp is a prominent centerpiece of this exhibit. Actors will replay this epic game between Duchamp and Bagradian, which lasted two and a half years in real life (1965-68), twice a day at 10:30 and again at 14:30 Tues- Sat. .Above, correspondence between Stephan Bagradian and John Updike from the Bagradian collection  Sergei Parajanov 1970 Photo by Ara Güler No Bagradian exhibit would be complete without examples of the set work he did with the polymath Sergei Parajanov. Most of these sets were photographs of Bagradian's paintings projected on a screen behind the actors.   Proposed Monument to Joseph Beuys Stephan Bagradian, 1987 Modeling clay, felt 105 cm x 196 cm Bagradian planned that his memorial to the recently deceased Joseph Beuys would measure 6 meters tall and three meters wide. Bagradian wished it to be placed in Children's Park, to celebrate Buey's childlike sense of wonder. Our display model of the never built statue features a clay mock up of a rabbit holding the body of Beuys, wrapped in felt- with his signature hat placed on top of his body. Coming up in the Fall of 2018, we will be hosting a special exhibit on Constantinople in the 1920s- a selection of artifacts and artworks created by Bagradian and his contemporaries in the city will be shown with a lecture series. Below is the 1925 Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh edition) entry on Constantinople: |
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