Group (1970) features elongated figures, huddling to form an amalgamation of colors. Their tired but trusting embraces evoke a complex mosaic of contortion and conviviality. Painted in the midst of the artist’s most prolific period, his bold sweeping brush strokes and color patches mark his steady move away from representation into abstraction throughout the ‘60s and into the ‘70s. 

Born in Jerusalem in 1926 to survivors of the Armenian Genocide, Paul Guiragossian was passionate about painting from a young age. Over the course of his life, his paintings evolved to vividly depict both his complicated surroundings and personal battles. From early separation from his mother at boarding school to multiple forced relocations to processing collective trauma caused by the Armenian Genocide, his flowing and lively paint strokes resonate with a full range of emotions. 

Winning a painting contest in 1956 was a major turning point in his career, leading to a scholarship to the Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Another grant from the French government followed and enabled him to study at Les Ateliers des Maîtres de l'École de Paris. Guiragossian passed away in 1993, in Rabieh, Lebanon and is still widely regarded as one of Lebanon's most important modern artists. 

His works are enshrined in esteemed collections and have been exhibited worldwide. Namely, at the British Museum in London, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou and Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Modern Art Museum of Kuwait, the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, and the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation in Abu Dhabi, among others.