Ara Shiraz

Ara Shiraz (Armenian: Արա Շիրազ, Արամազդ Հովհաննեսի Կարապետյան, he was born in 1941, Yerevan) is an Armenian sculptor, Hovhannes Shiraz's and Silva Kaputikyan's son.

Biography

Ara Shiraz was born in Yerevan in 1941. He has graduated the Yerevan Theatre and Fine Arts Institute in 1966. He has participated in numerous young artists exhibitions in Armenia and the Soviet Union. Since 1968 he is a member of the Artists' Union of Armenia. His works have been exhibited in major cities of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilisi) as part of solo and group shows. He has taken part in the Festival of Armenian Art "From Urartu to the Present" (Paris, 1970).

Ara Shiraz is characterized with his monumental sculptural works of art such as the monuments of Baruyr Sevag (Yerevan, 1974), Yeghishe Charents (Charentsavan, 1977), Alexander Miasnikyan (Yerevan, 1980), and William Saroyan (Yerevan's Pantheon, 1991).

In 1979 Ara Shiraz was awarded the State Award of Armenia for his ornamental sculptures decorating the facade of the Dvin Hotel in Yerevan. In 1977 he was granted the title of Meritorious Artist of Armenia. In 1987 he was elected the president of the Artists' Union of Armenia, and a member of the Secretariat of the Artists' Union of the U.S.S.R.

Ara Shiraz' most renowned works include the busts of Pablo Picasso, Yervand Kochar, Hovhannes Shiraz, and Vruir Galstian. Many of his sculptural compositions are in permanent exhibit in the Modern Art Museum of Armenia and the State Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Eastern Nations Museum of Art in Moscow.

Ara Shiraz' paintings and sculptures are found in many private collections throughout the world: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Beirut, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, etc. His father's (Hovhannes Shiraz) death-masque was made by famous sculptor Rafik Khachatryan.

Works

• Yeghishe Charents, Charentsavan, 1977^[1]
• Paruyr Sevak, Yerevan, 1978^[1]
• Aleksandr Myasnikyan, Yerevan, 1980^[1]
• William Saroyan, Komitas Pantheon, Yerevan, 1984^[1]
• Tigran Petrosian, Chess House, Yerevan, 1989
• Hovhannes Shiraz Komitas Pantheon, 1989
• Sergei Parajanov, Komitas Pantheon, 1999
• Andranik Ozanian In the front of the Saint Gregory the Illumminator Cathedral, 2002
• Hovhannes Shiraz, Malatia-Sebastia District, Yerevan, 2005^[2]
• Vazgen I, Vaskenian Theological Academy, Sevan, 2008^[3]

Ara Shiraz's paintings and sculptures are found in many private collections throughout the world: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Beirut, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, etc.

Andranik Ozanian's statue

Shiraz is also the author of Andranik's statue (2002). Andranik is sitting in two horse. They are symbolizing Western and Eastern Armenias.

References

• azg.am
• www.roslin.com Biography