VARUJAN BOGHOSIAN

BOGHOSIAN--Varujan. Varujan Yegan Boghosian. June 26, 1926 - September 21, 2020. Artist, Art Professor, and WWII Navy Veteran. Varujan was born in New Britain, CT to Armenian genocide refugees Mesrop and Baidzar Boghosian. At the invitation of Josef Albers, he studied and received his BFA and MFA from Yale. Varujan taught at the Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth. Often called a visual poet, he imbued castaway objects with whimsy and assembled them with a nod to literary references. A lifelong fascination with the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Charon and the Rivers Styx, informed his work. The mysteries of James Joyce preoccupied him. Poet Laureate and friend Stanley Kunitz's poem "Chariot" describes his studio as "the magician's place...where curiosity runs the shop." Varujan was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Century Association, the St. Botolph Club, and was a MacDowell Colony Trustee and Chair. Twice Sculptor-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome, he received a Guggenheim and Fulbright to Italy, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship, the U.S. State Department Specialist's Grant. Varujan's New York galleries included Stable, Cordier & Ekstrom, Kent Fine Art, Alexandre, and Provincetown's Berta Walker. "Bugsy" was known for his good humor, humanity, mentorship, and generosity to others, including strangers. He made homes in Hanover, NH and Provincetown, MA. Varujan was predeceased in 2005 by wife Marilyn Cummins, and is survived by daughter Heidi Boghosian and dear friend Holly Swett.