Word: bedikian
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Dates: during 1952-1952
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Bread & Butter. All Bedikian asks is that Paris judge for itself. In a Right Bank gallery last week, 65 of his canvases were on exhibit for the first time: a series of posed portraits done in his studio, and a second series of free impressions from his rambles around the Continent. The portrait work was bread & butter art-formal and flattering. But those he had dashed off on his travels showed a masterly touch. In a few confident strokes of smooth color, Bedikian could re-create the patient labor of a Capri fisherman's life, the lazy alertness...
Paris critics admit that Painter Bedikian, 44, knows his business, but most consider him an artistic reactionary, complain that "his work adds nothing to the general history of art." A small corps of Bedikian boosters disagrees. One enthusiast, writing in the financial daily, L'lnformation, has even called him "one of the great names of tomorrow . . . the heir to the old masters and the greatest modern painters...
...Bedikian has not always done that well. A serious artist since he was 15, he learned to draw with chalk as an orphan at a French school in Beirut, soon set out for Paris, doing sidewalk portraits along the way for carfare. In the early '30s, Bedikian spurned the schools and studied alone at the Louvre. He took odd jobs retouching photos for rent money, each night made the rounds of his friends' homes to be sure of a dinner. For eight years his only success was a single picture shown at the 1936 Beaux Arts salon...
Modes & Masters. Everything changed after the war. Traveling in Switzerland, he persuaded a Lausanne gallery owner to show 40 of his paintings. Within a few weeks, all but three were sold, and the owner of the gallery bought the leftovers. A friend saw Bedikian's work, promptly bought his entire output for two years. With portrait commissions on the side, Bedikian has been able to consider himself a commercial success ever since. What he wants now is recognition...
...willing to wait. His work, says Bedikian, "is in the great tradition of the masters"; cubism, surrealism and abstractionism "are not movements-they are modes." He is confident the art world will turn to him: "It's already apparent that it has no place...