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First, some fragments...

All of the above are fragments of this work:

... the original is 35cm by 35cm. Honestly, look:

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pokora

When talking about Artur, his Armenian friend, Vahan continually returns to the Polish word pokora, which either gets translated as humility or humbleness in English. The word is given extra force with the adjective niesamowita, which could be rendered as incredible or tremendous, but it is clear that, even with this added power, the phrase niesamowitą pokora is uttered with perceptible frustration when describing Artur’s approach to life and his work. The word pokora is, however, the only word available that can indicate the attitude and frame of mind from which Artur’s art emerges.

In English, humility conjures up ideas of passivity and timidity, of someone who meekly accepts their place low down in the social order. But this not quite what Vahan is getting at when he tries to encapsulate Artur’s way of being. With Artur, pokora is more about not letting his talent get in the way of everyday life and his dealings with other people. He is most definitely not in your face with his art. Vahan describes Artur as being supremely adaptable: he can slip into and fit perfectly with any social situation. But when he finds time to turn to his art, or immerse himself in a book, he enters a state of total absorption. Artur is an assiduous reader of religious and philosophical texts and his humility owes a lot to Buddhism, rather than to Christian servility.

pokora is the key word which opens up Artur’s pencil meditations. These drawings are explorations of, and meditations upon, the infinite. Having imposed the restriction of 35cm by 35cm at the outset, and having the laid down the basic plate design, Artur’s pencil carved and traced layer after layer of mind-boggling, infinitesimal detail. If you look at this drawing at high resolution and wander around its vast terrain, you will find astonishing depth in the borders, buried figures, and worlds within worlds, all of which are difficult to fully appreciate with the naked eye. Theoretically, Artur’s attention to detail could be infinite, proceeding down to nano and pico levels, but he is somewhat restricted by the fact that pencil lead doesn’t come thinner than 0.3mm. His drawing is monumental on a modest scale, all the more vast due to its humble dimensions. Artur’s art truly merits reference to Blake’s over-quoted lines:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Artur’s visions are the products of a seriously surreal imagination, one which entwines flesh with stone, and plaits stone with plant tendrils, where stones become indistinguishable from and merge into fruit, and embedded eyes peer from pearly corners. Artur’s surrealism is far from chaotic though; on the contrary, the static fluidity is a result of meticulous planning and painstaking execution.

In these peculiar pencil sculptures two distinct Armenian artistic traditions are wedded: that of ornately carved Khachkar, which often feature complex plaiting, and that of the illuminated manuscripts, where monks would painstakingly inscribe decorative symbols into the edges and corners of pages. Both of these traditions required extraordinary levels of discipline, patience and self-effacement from their devotees. The artists in these traditions entered into an intensely spiritual relationship with their medium. In his own weird and quiet way, Artur continues their devotion.

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Paintings - oil & acrylic

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Drawing 2

Fragments

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_{Artur and Vahan, Armenia 1991}

Artur and Vahan have been friends since childhood. Both of them were born in Gyumri. They went to the same art classes at high school, the same art college and and the same university of art. They shared a room as students. Artur specialized in design, while Vahan was more drawn to sculpture. Both spent two years in the Armenian army after the war with Azerbaijan broke out. After these difficult years they both left Armenia – Artur made his way to Moscow, where he worked as a designer and sold his drawings, and Vahan went to Poland. Artur eventually returned to Armenia, after travelling around and even spending some time selling on the black market in Poland, unbeknown to Vahan. Vahan has remained in Poland to this day. When Vahan visited Armenia this summer because he needed a top-up of Armenian sunshine, he and Artur had not seen each other for 13 years. Once they met up, those 13 years felt like 13 days.

_{Artur, Armenia 2006}