Text by Mary Tatossian
There is something mystically alluring about Quebec’s
fleeting yet spectacular Fall. Thankfully Armand overpowering obsession
with color & light somehow allowed him to capture that same magic for the
viewing pleasure of future generations to come.
But interestingly, when you hold one of Armand’s
canvases in your hands, like an optical illusion, up close the same magical painting
appears as unrelated globs of paint, indiscriminately flung together in some silly,
whimsical manner. Irrational splotches of turquoise, mauve, teal and vermilion
flung haphazardly in what appears to be a tree, an impulsive magenta line and cobalt
shadow constitutes the trunk. Dribbles of fuchsia juxtaposed with lime green. You
think- surely it must be in error... But take a few steps back and it all enchantingly
mingles and merges giving life, depth and dimension to a spectacular awestruck landscape.
Colors that seemed random are anything but. I would often joke with my brother,
saying he was myopic. He worked so quickly and rarely took steps back, so how
did he know it would all come together so perfectly.
I believe PhD Art Historian, Rigas Bertos baptized
my brother the “Master of Light” for this very reason back the late 70’s, in
the dawn of Armand’s career. Dr. Bertos eloquently described Armand’s work as follows:
In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would swear that John Donne was thinking of one of my brother’s Fall oil canvas when he wrote “The Autumnal” in the 17th Century: “No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."“Magnificent colors, brought into strong relation through robust yet discreet compositional structures, seem to be the dominant element of his canvases. Colors strong sharply defined and ready to move at the same time. A continuous oscillation, an incessant movement, a dynamic potential of change constitute some of the principal virtues of his (Tatossian’s) “oeuvre”. Nothing is arbitrary: The moving force, the real protagonist of the drama of colors and shapes is always Light, the elusive ever changing Creator of things, which Armand has always succeeded to encapsulate in his paintings."
Without further ado, I will let you be the judge and present: An Ode to Fall by Armand Tatossian, RCA
Your feedback and impressions are always welcome.
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