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Dalloul Art Foundation
ASSADOUR BEZDIKIAN ASSADOUR BEZDIKIAN

ASSADOUR BEZDIKIAN, Lebanon (1943)

Bio

Assadour Bezdikian, commonly known by Assadour, was born in Bourj Hammoud, a popular neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, in 1943, to a family of Armenian origin. Early in his...

Written by FADIA ANTAR


Assadour Bezdikian, commonly known by Assadour, was born in Bourj Hammoud, a popular neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, in 1943, to a family of Armenian origin. Early in his youth, Assadour showed a rebellious character and challenged the old traditional school system that did not adapt to his free spirit. His immediate interest in art, directed the young Assadour to take a few painting lessons with the artist Paul Guiragossian (1926 -1993) and to join the art studio of the Lebanese painter, Guvder (1923-2016). Later, he enrolled at the Italian Cultural Center in Beirut, where he was taught art under the Lebanese painter, Jean Khalife (1925-1978)[1]. The Italian Cultural Center granted him, for two consecutive years, a three months scholarship to study at the Pietro Vannucci Academy, in Perugia, in Italy, in the summers of 1962 and 1963[2]. At the Pietro Vannucci, Assadour was mentored under the Franciscan priest Diego to execute his first engraving. He got acquainted with the Italian Renaissance and discovered through several trips around Italy, the art of Giotto, Uccello, and many others[3]. Assadour developed, through his Italian experience, an attachment to the drawing, while the painting was more valued at the Beirut's art scene at that time. He realized that the horizon for a painting career in Beirut didn’t fit his challenging vision that questioned the existing local art practices, in the 60s[4]. In 1964, he won a competition organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, which granted him a three-year scholarship to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. There, he trained at the workshop of Lucien Coutaud (1904-1977).[5]

In his training at Lucien Coutaud’s workshop as at the Pietro Vannucci, Assadour received a dense formal and technical education; he enhanced his natural talents with control, precision, and application in watercolor, drawing, and painting, but mostly in engraving. Paris was Assadour’s encounter with constructivism, abstraction, and expressionism, and it could be argued that each of these styles left their mark on the pupil at the time. Nevertheless, Assadour did not have one particular influence that defines his work. Art critics have attempted to decipher the inspirations of his art listing from the Mesopotamian, the Egyptian, and Armenian art, to Buddhist iconography, and Western art.[6] Although, despite their efforts, Assadour’s work cannot be exclusively linked back with any names, schools, or periods. As an outsider and an unmatched creator, his work defies all attempts at categorization.[7]

Assadour’s challenging character positioned him against the traditional educational system and it’s hierarchy guided him to question every imposed rules and regulation. His art was a means to dismantle and make use of several sciences proving that all the enigmas in the world are not to be discovered and communicated only through traditional channels, nor do they have to deliver a preconceived single message. His canvases refer to geometry through the use of measuring scales, arrows, squares, cylinders, triangles, grids, and more; arithmetic is revealed through numbers, coordinates, and architecture in arches, domes, cubes, and pyramids. We see cosmology in the constellations of representations sprinkled on his canvases, calligraphy in the letters dispersed amid other signs and symbols, especially the letter “A,” referring to the artist himself. Meticulous like a master watchmaker, Assadour disassembles every aspect of certainty in the world, scatters it all over his compositions, voids it of its aura, and makes it accessible to all. Therefore, by demonstrating that the world is functioning on residues of traditions, Assadour clearly “demystifies the misunderstanding of the technological civilization.”[8]

Amid the diversity in his pictorial elements, Assadour succeeded in maintaining the consistency in the construction of his works. His strong upbringing in the art of engraving gave him the technical means to reassemble his scattered vocabulary.[9] His detailed composition is framed within thin and sometimes thick contours that coexist by being superimposed, facing each other or storming into each other’s spaces, connecting the pieces of his puzzle and creating defined arenas for the eye to collect the pictorial modules. Sometimes grids are assigned onto his composition and work as a device to create order within disorder, Assadour’s multiple architectural layouts contribute to an impression of cohesion.[10] His work, Coupole Inclinée, 2011, part of DAF’s collections, exemplifies the dynamic composition built with diverse elements, dispersed on the canvas and contained within overlapping frames. A beam of light strikes on parts of the painting while others are bathing in darkness and shadow. Pulling unity out of dispersion, hinting on order within the chaos, are ones of the multiple antidote forces that constitute the work of Assadour and disclose its dynamism[11]. In fact, being a lyrical and an analytical person at the same time, the artist manipulates binary formulas, black and white, lucid and enigmatic, unified and scattered in a way to involve the viewer in the action of creation, always giving him clues and potential, but never a solution. “He is the master of contradictions, of innuendos of ambiguities, of paradox, managing to create images which amalgamate opposites, are neither one thing nor the other…”[12]

A leading engraver, confident in the strength of his craftsmanship, Assadour understands the essence of things through their mechanisms. He does not take a general idea as his starting point but builds his work from an abstraction.[13] Lines, combinations of scratched and smooth areas, are born on his engraving plate. No prior narration is preconceived, but only the meticulous assemblies and dispatching of lines, images, and frames.[14] However, behind the impression of narrative emptiness conveyed by the strict formalist approach of Assadour, one cannot help but detect recurrent themes related to personal and collective experiences. Among those themes, Assadour visited the subject matter of the sliding city since 1966, when he engraved his Ville Oblique, 1966. It was a starting point for several works depicting a sliding city. La Ville (1968), part of DAF's collection, is an oil on canvas that perks this theme. Clinging to a slippery land, the habitations in La Ville form a compact cohort, with no street or public square or even windows, only one door leading to entrapment, making the city hostile to humans, standing on the edge of a precipice, to predict an imminent catastrophe. Through those depictions the question of the modern dwellings is raised, besides the quality of life they provide. La Ville wasn't a cityscape void of its human inhabitants; one should scrutinize it to find, under the rubbles, between the arches, and behind the cubical forms, lying, flattened, and abstracted silhouettes. They appeared as if erased by the artist or by time, and melted within the features of the city. Following the early period of La Ville (1968), Assadour introduced the human figures and articulated them within his cosmos. They played a role in the landscape, and at the same time, the landscape appeared as a disassembled human figure. He would entitle an engraving La Voie Lactée (The Milky Way), 1975, to begin engraving his cosmological signs and forms. The outcome would be a female human figure taking part in the cosmos mechanism.[15]

Assadour's codes and signs function within the space of the painting independently of their respective traditional references; they constitute a particular universe that unfolds through intuition more than to the intellect. Assadour empowers the viewer by providing potentials of universes to gather and re-construct; he invites him to have an active approach towards his work of art. 

The artist lives and works in Paris, France.

Notes
Sources
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CV

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024

Assadour: Time In Motion, Janet Rady Fine Art, London, UK

2023

Assadour: Etchings, Meem Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2022

Assadour: Tracks and Paths, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Haagen, Germany

2016

Assadour: Landscape in Motion, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Paintings, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2014

MIG (Museo Internazionale di Grafica) Laboratorio d’Arte Grafica di Modena, Italy

2012

From Chaos To Harmony, Galerie Claud Lemand, Paris, France

2008

Pericle Fazzini Museum, Assisi, Italy
Tito Balesta Foundation, Longiano, Italy

2004

Cahiers d’Art, Paris, France
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Paintings on Paper and Artist’s Books, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2003

Keum San Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

2002

Vivant Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Keum San Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2001

Galerie d’Art Contemporain, Chamalières, France

1999

Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
Galerie Artgraph, Nagoya, Japan

1997

Cahiers d’Art, Paris, France
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Gallery Debora, Oita, Japan

1996

Galleria Della Pergola, Pesaro, Italy

1995

Keum San Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Rochane Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Gallery Debora, Oita, Japan

1994

Bern Art Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Gallery “Mini Exhibition”, Akita, Japan
 Galleria Della Pergola, Pesaro, Italy
I Vicoli Dell’Arte, Maratea, Italy
Galleria La Pancetta, Italy

1993

Theatre de Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Evangelische Akademie, Tutzing, Germany
Galleria Opera, Spoleto; Matera, Italy
Galerie “Cegrac” a Coruna, Spain
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Galerie Biren, Paris, France    

1992

Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan
Galleria Della Pergola, Pesaro, Italy

1991

Bochum Museum, Bochum, Germany
Artgraph Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
Galerie Balucka, Lodz, Poland
Galerie du Luxembourg, Luxembourg    

1990

Studio Pozzan, Vicenza, Italy
Tapiès Gallery, Kobe, Japan
Galerie du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Galleria Della Pergola, Pesaro, Italy    

1989

FIAC-SAGA Luxembourg Gallery, France
Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan

1988

Galerie Boisserée, Cologne, Germany

1987

Maison de la Culture, Metz, France

1986

Taichung Cultural Center, Taichung, Taiwan
Xing Ling Art Center, Kaoshung, Taiwan
Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France    

1985

New Aspect Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

1984

Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan
La Panchetta Gallery, Bari, Italy
Gallerie II Millenia, Rome, Italy

1983

Expo Arte, Bari, Italy
Gallerie El Puente, Lima, Peru
Galerie Sagot-Le-Garrec, Paris, France
Gallerie Arte Studio 36, Lecce, Italy

1982

Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France
Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan

1981

Nokano Ko Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Galerie Praestegaarden, Denmark
Galerie Cimaise, Lausanne, Switzerland
Studio Merli, Ferrara, Italy
Galleria Della Pergola, Pesaro, Italy

1980

Alex Manoogian Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Galerie L’Arco, Rome, Italy
Galerie Heimeshoff, Essen, Germany
Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan

1979

Galerie Il Ponte, Florence, Italy
Galerie Christiano Benti, Italy
Santa Croce sull’Arno, Italy
Galleria Dei Giomi, Pisa, Italy
Galerie Madeline, Grenoble, France

1978

La Cooperativa Gallery, Bari, Italy
Galleria d’Arte Spriano Omegna, Novara, Italy

1977

Galerie Sagot-Le-Garrec, Paris, France
Galleria Trudstolpegaard Saxkjobing, Denmark
Gallerie Il Messagio, Reggio Calabria, Italy

1976

Galerie La Taille Douce, Brussels, Belgium
Galleria La Lantarna, Trieste, Italy
Galleria Forma Studio, Rome, Italy
Galerie L’Ollave, Lyon, France
Galerie d’Eendt, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
International Biennial of Engraving, Kraków, Poland

1975

Alex Monogian Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon

1974

Galerie Paul Brück, Luxembourg
Galerie L’Arco, Rome, Itay
Centro du Studi per l’Incizione, Pesaro, Italy    

1972

Galerie La Taille Douce, Brussels, Belgium           

1971

Galerie Ariane, Gothenburg, Sweden
Galerie La Pochade, Paris, France

1968

Galerie L’Amateur, Beirut, Lebanon

1967

Samia Toutounji Residence, Beirut, Lebanon

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023

Lebanon | Untitled: Modern & Contemporary Lebanese Art, Janet Rady Fine Art, London, UK
Beirut And The Golden Sixties: A Manifesto Of Fragility
, Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
E la mia Patria è dove: l'erba trema,
La Galleria Nazionale, Rome, Italy
Masterpieces,
Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
UNTITLED Abstractions, Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon

2022

Manifesto of Fragility: Beirut and The Golden Sixties, Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France

2019

A la plume, au pinceau, au crayon: dessins du monde Arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

2018

Donation Claude & France Lemand, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

2017

Tondo from East and West, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France
Around the World through Tondo, Musée de l’Hospice Saint Roch, Issoudun, France
Arab Print: Volume III, Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2016

From East and West, Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris, France

2013

L’Automne, Moonshin Museum, Seoul, South Korea

2012

Art From Lebanon, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Masters of the Tondo, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France
Lebanese Creativity, 1959-2012, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France
Les Arts de l’Exile, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2011

D’Orient et D’Occident, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait; Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2010

Recent Acquisitions, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2008

Masterpieces, Inaugural Exhibition, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2006

Rare Works, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2005

Tondo International, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France
Homage to Shafic Abboud, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2003

The 39th exhibition of the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association, South Korea

2002

International Contemporary Prints Art Exhibition, Seoul, South Korea
2nd annual graphic international, Agello, Italy
Anacreon Museum, Granville, France
Le Signe et La Marge, Musée Anacréon Granville, France

2001

D’Orient et D’Occident, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France

2000

Saletta Galaverni, Reggio Emilia, Italy

1999

Norwegian International Print Triennial, Fredrikstad, Norway
Lebanese Cultural Forum, UNESCO, Paris, France
L’Arte e il torchio, A.D.A.F.A., Cermona, Italy
Le Signe et La Marge, Galerie Nichido, Paris, France
Bapha, International Print Biennale, Varna, Bulgaria
Lebanese Cultural Forum, UNESCO, Paris, France

1998

Art Biennial of Alcoi, Alcoi, Spain
Le Signe et La Marge, The Palace of Medieval Verneuil Justice, Bourdonnais, France
Galerie des Remparts, Le Mans, France

1997

La Beauté du Noir, Galerie Vivant, Tokyo, Japan
4th Biennial of Graphic Art, Belgrade, Serbia
 Mostra di Grafica, Saletta Galaverni, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Grafica in Francia, Palazzo Sangalio, Tolentino, Italy

1996

4th Biennial of Graphic Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Dessins et Couleurs, Galerie Framond, Paris, France

1994

Intergrafia ’94 World Award Winners Gallery, Katowice, Poland

1992

Musée du Petit Format, Couvin-Mariembourg, Belgium

1991

International Biennial of Engraving, Kraków, Poland
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland

1990

Vico Arte 90, 2nd International Biennial of Graphic Art, Bamberino Val d’Elsa, Italy

1989

International Biennial of Etching, Ljublhana, Yugoslavia
Gravures Etrangères Contemporaines, Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er, Brussels, Belgium

1988

Salon d’Automne, Thorigny-sur-Marne, France

1987

1st Triennial of Contemporary Etching, Oberkorn, Luxembourg
International Biennial of Etching, Ljublhana, Yugoslavia

1986

Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland
Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway

1985

International Biennial of Etching, Ljublhana, Yugoslavia
Gravadores da Escola de Paris, Concello de Santiago, Spain

1984

Le Perugin, Caen, France
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland

1983

World Print Council, New York, US
International Biennial of Etching, Ljublhana, Yugoslavia
International Print Exhibition, Taiwan

1982

International Biennial of Etching, Brussels, Belgium
Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway

1981

International Biennial of Etching, Ljublhana, Yugoslavia

1980

International Biennial of Engraving, Kraków, Poland
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland
Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway

1979

1st Biennial of Incision, Biella, Italy
1st European Biennial of Etching, Heidelberg, Germany
British International Print Biennial, Bradford, UK
Grafiska Sallskapet, Stockholm, Sweden

1978

International Biennial of Engraving, Kraków, Poland
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland

1977

1st New York International Drawing Biennial, Bronx Museum of Art, New York, US
Expo Art, Frankfurt, Germany; Bologna,Bari, Italy; Switzerland,
La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, Paris, France

1976

2nd European Biennial of Etching, Mulhouse, France
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
Salon de la Gravure, Levallois-Perret, France
Salon International, Toulon, France
Intergrafik 76 DDR, Berlin, Germany

1975

La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, Paris, France
Salon de Mai, Paris, France
Quinzaine sur l’Estampe, Spain

1974

La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, Paris, France
Intergrafia, Katowice, Poland
Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway
Salon de Mai, Paris, France

1973

International Salon of Art, Toulon, France

1972

International Biennial of Graphic Art, Florence, Italy Réalités Nouvelles, Paris, France
Exposition Internationale de Dessins Originaux, Rijeka, Yugoslavia
Tercera Biennal International Del Grabbado, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Salon de Mai, Paris, France

1971

International Biennial of Print, Epinal, France

1970

International Biennial of Etching, Krakow, Poland
Exposition Internationale de Dessins Originaux, Rijeka, Yugoslavia
Biennale Internationale de l’Estampe, Paris, France

1968

Exposition Internationale de Dessins Originaux, Rijeka, Yugoslavia
Salon de Mai, Paris, France

1967

Salon de Mai, Paris, France

Awards and Honors

1997

The Prize of the Ministry of Art and Culture, Fifth International Art Triennial, Majdanek, Poland

1990

Prix Gabriel Ollivier, XXIV Prix International d’Art Contemporain de Monte Carlo

1984

Grand Prix des Arts de la ville de Paris, France

1983

Museum of Modern Art Award, International Biennial of Etching, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

1981

Medal of Honor, Male Formy Grafiki, Lodz, Poland

1980

Prix du Président de la ville de Cracovie, Poland

1975

Grand Prize, 1st International Biennial of Givet, France

1973

Silver Medal, International Biennial, Épinal France

1972

Gold Metal, Terza International Biennial of Graphic art, Florence, Italy

Collections

Moonshine Museum, Seoul, South Korea
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
The British Museum, London, UK
CCCPL, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Collection Samsung, Seoul, South Korea
National Museum of Silesia, Poland
National Museum of Warsaw, Poland
Collection Paribas, Switzerland
Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, France
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Contemporary Art Museum, Skopje, Yugoslavia
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France
Fonds Régionale d’Art Contemporain, Normandy, France
L’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
Chateau d’Annecy, Annecy, France

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