Chant Avedissian was born in 1951 in Cairo, the son of Armenian refugees
who fled the Turkish incursions in 1915-16. After studying fine art at
the School of Art and Design in Montreal and applied arts at the
National Higher School of Decorative Arts in Paris during the 1970s,
Avedissian returned to Egypt. He fused the techniques, concepts and
cosmopolitan experiences acquired abroad with the heritage of his
Armenian-Egyptian background to produce striking commentaries on the
world around him. His artistry ranges from photography to costume and
textile design to the painted stencils seen here. His relationship with
Hassan Fathy, a well-known Egyptian architect who advocated the use of
local materials and craftsmanship, challenged Avedissian to reconsider
local traditions of artistry and to appreciate the properties of common
materials.
Exhibited widely, Avedissian's artwork is held by the National Museum of African Art,
Smithsonian Institution; the British Museum, London; the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam;
the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh; and the National Gallery of Jordan.
". . . with age, I came to the point, where anything that is not
traditional Japanese, or close to its spirit, is pure barbarism. The
simplicity and minimalism of the 'way' suits my sense of beauty
perfectly, . . . through this I came to appreciate more the Arab values
of desert life and the nonpermanent manners of the tent dwellers, whose
custom and manners in furniture (or non furniture) are so close to the
Japanese."
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