The California
Courier Online,
1- Commentary
Diaspora
Minister Proposes Forming
Diaspora
Parliament in Armenia
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Turkey Suspected in Cyber Attack
against Christian Persecution Watchdog Group
3 – Commentary:
Light the Fire of Peace
By Rostom
Sarkissian
4 – Commentary: Israel Must Correct Policy of
Armenian Genocide Non-Recognition
By Prof. Israel Charny
5 – Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams, Serge
and Shalet Gharibian Attend Royal Wedding
6 – Janetsian-Fritz: Early maternal deprivation
alters adult brain function, cognition
7- COAF
SMART Center
Set to Transform Armenia's
Lori Region
8- Hockney and
Friends… Including Larry Gagosian, Joan Agajanian Quinn
******************************************
1 – Commentary
Diaspora
Minister Proposes Forming
Diaspora
Parliament in Armenia
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
The new Diaspora Minister Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, appointed by
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on May 11, announced that a second legislative
body would be created in Armenia
to represent Diaspora Armenians.
This is a fascinating concept, but not a novelty.
Interestingly, former Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan, during her visit to Los Angeles on January 30, 2011, made a similar
announcement, proposing the creation of a Senate in Armenia in addition to the existing
Parliament that would partially include Diaspora Armenians.
I wrote an editorial in 2011, a few days after Minister
Hakobyan’s announcement, and raised several questions which also apply to the
proposal made by the new Diaspora Minister earlier this month.
The most important issue is that the creation of a second
legislative chamber requires amending Armenian’s constitution—not an easy task!
Without such an amendment, the structure of the Armenian government cannot be
altered. Interestingly, the new Diaspora Minister did not mention that his
proposal would require constitutional changes. This is a serious issue as the
constitution was last revised in 2015 and it is neither likely nor desirable
that it be altered so soon. Even the newly-appointed Prime Minister
acknowledged that it is not a good idea to tamper with the constitution every
so often. It is also important to note that despite the former Diaspora
Minister’s 2011 announcement, when Armenia’s constitution was
eventually amended in 2015, the concept of a second legislative chamber for the
Diaspora was not included in it.
Since the new Diaspora Minister asked for input from
Armenians overseas about his new proposal, I would like to raise a number of
questions:
1) Is the Armenian
Government willing to amend the constitution to create a second legislative
chamber? An alternative option, that may not require a change of the
constitution, would be to include Armenians from the Diaspora in the present
Parliament. Several countries have adopted such a mechanism. A thorough study should
be made of how other countries have resolved the participation of their
diaspora representatives in their legislative bodies.
2) What exactly
would be the mandate of the new chamber? Would it only discuss pan-Armenian
issues such as the Armenian Genocide, demands from Turkey,
the Artsakh conflict, and matters related to Diaspora Armenians or would it be
also deal with Armenia’s
internal problems? Minister Hayrapetyan, in one of his interviews, stated that
the new chamber would be a consultative, not a decision-making body. This would
raise all sorts of questions both in Armenia and the Diaspora. Would
Diaspora Armenians be content to go to the trouble of electing representatives
from their communities and spending their time in endless hours of meetings in Yerevan merely to give
advice to the Armenian Government that may not be listened to? Would Diaspora
representatives after a while lose their interest and stop attending the
meetings of such a consultative body? On the opposite side, would residents of Armenia welcome decisions or even advice from
Armenians who do not live in Armenia?
3) How would the
representatives of the new legislative body be chosen? Would they be elected by
their communities around the world or would they be appointed by the Armenian
Government? In my opinion, Diaspora representatives should be elected by their
community members, no matter how difficult it would be to organize such
elections throughout the world. The Armenian Government should not be involved
in elections to be held in the Diaspora. Representatives appointed by the
Armenian Government or selected from Armenian organizations would not be able
to claim that they truly represent the Armenians of the Diaspora, since the
public-at-large has not elected them. The leaders of Diaspora organizations
represent only their own members, not the majority of Armenians in the
Diaspora, since most Armenians are not members of any organization. It is also
not a good idea to have two legislative chambers in Armenia,
one of which is elected by the citizens of Armenia (the present Parliament)
and the second one is composed of appointed, not elected members.
4) What would be
the criteria for candidates and voters for the Diaspora chamber? Would it be
acceptable that the candidates be Armenians who are citizens of foreign
countries or should they be asked to acquire at least dual citizenship?
Otherwise, it would be odd to have a group of foreign citizens, albeit
Armenians, sitting in Yerevan and making
decisions or giving advice that would affect Armenia’s population.
5) Would Diaspora
representatives of the new legislative body move to Armenia
to participate in year-round sessions or simply come to Armenia for
brief periods to attend meetings dealing with pan-Armenian issues?
Certainly, there should be no rush to form a second
legislative body. As Minister Hayrapetyan suggested, extensive consultations
should be held in Armenia
and the Diaspora to find a solution that is in the best interest of all
Armenians.
**************************************************************************************************
2- Turkey
Suspected in Cyber Attack against Christian Persecution Watchdog Group
By Samuel
Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Christian Post)—The United
States-based persecution advocacy nonprofit In Defense of Christians says its
website, employees’ social media accounts and email accounts were hacked
Thursday, May 17 by someone they have good reason to believe was acting “for or
on behalf of the Turkish government.”
“Our website was taken down and a Turkish flag periodically
appeared on the website for several hours while staff email accounts and
private social media accounts were compromised and, in a few cases, altered,”
IDC Executive Director Philippe Nassif said during a news conference on Friday,
May 18 at the organization’s office.
“We find this behavior unacceptable and that it only further
demonstrates Turkey’s
intolerance of freedom of speech and dissidence.”
The cyber attack came the day after IDC, which was founded
four years ago with the purpose of advocating for religious freedom in the Middle East, and two other rights groups hosted a Capitol
Hill briefing focusing on the human rights violations being committed by the
NATO ally. Two senators, Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Thom
Tillis of North Carolina
spoke at the briefing, as well as experts on the region.
“The briefing specifically examined how President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan continues to deny genocide, freedom of speech, and jailing
American citizens such as Pastor [Andrew] Brunson and other political
dissidents, all while oppressing religious minorities,” Nassif explained. “IDC
condemns this petty cyber attack coming from a U.S. ally and NATO member.
Unfortunately, this behavior reflects a pattern from the Turkish government as
evidenced by the silencing of dissidents inside Turkey
and the illegal attacks on American citizens last year who were demonstrating against
Erdoğan in Washington, D.C.”
According to IDC, its website went down at about 10:30 a.m.
Thursday. The worst of the attack occurred until about 12:30 p.m.
During that time, IDC content was replaced with the Turkish
flag and at times, also played patriotic Turkish music.
After working to restore the page through the afternoon, the
website was fully restored at around 7 p.m. on May 17, although Nassif said
that they were still working to restore full online capabilities as the attack
impacted the organization’s email software.
According to Nassif, there was a bit of buildup in the week
leading up to the Capitol Hill briefing and that IDC staff suspected something
would happen.
“Many of the staff started receiving strange friend requests
on Facebook and friend requests on LinkedIn from bizarre profiles of
individuals, some of them had Turkish names and some didn’t,” he said. “It
happened over the course of the week as we continued to promote the event on
Capitol Hill.”
Nassif also said that staff members received notifications
in their email that someone was trying to login to their personal accounts from
undisclosed locations.
“When I woke up and saw that happened, to a couple of us, we
were concerned that something bigger was going to happen,” he said. “By 10:30
a.m. yesterday morning, our website was down and all this stuff started to
happen.”
When asked how IDC can be certain that this act was carried
about by agents acting on behalf of Turkey, he responded by saying that the
organization didn’t know if the attack came on authority from Turkish
leadership or if it was disseminated “among the many actors that they have that
support their policies.”
“We are working with our web host to look into the trail
that is left when these types of things happen,” he said. “We hope to get more
of that information later today.”
Greg Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch and research
professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George
Mason University
in Virginia,
said during the news conference that the Genocide Watch website has also been
attacked by Turkish agents in the past.
“Turkey
and Turkish [actors] have also taken down our websites several times. They
don’t like us because we tell the truth,” Stanton
said. “The truth is that Turkey
now has a genocidal government. It is a genocidal government; not just in
denying the [past] genocide of Christians … but also [now] conducting
genocide against Kurds. The attack on Afrin [earlier this year] was very
clearly genocidal.”
Aram Hamparian, executive director of Armenian National
Committee of America, said that his organization has researched such
retaliatory actions by the Turkish government over the past few decades.
“All the roads and signals point back to Ankara as state-sponsored effort. In any
given instance, there is likely a day or week or month of deniability but if
you research it, time and again it leads back to either Turkish intelligence or
Turkish foreign ministry,” he said. “You can find that in de-classified
documents, you can find that in WikiLeaks documents, you can find that in
documents secured through congressional testimony and confirmation hearings.”
Nassif said that IDC is going to gather all the information
they can about the attack before they call on President Trump, the U.S. government
and its agencies to investigate.
“What works in Turkey
does not work in the United
States. We will continue to fight for
persecuted minorities in Turkey
as well as across the entire region and we will not be intimidated or bullied
into being silent," the IDC said on May 18.
**************************************************************************************************
3 – Commentary:
Light the Fire of Peace
By Rostom
Sarkissian
Last week, two major events took place far from Armenia, in the Middle East’s biblical cauldron
of conflict—Israel and Palestine. While
Armenians did not play a role in the events, they affect Armenian issues.
On May 14, the United States
officially opened its new embassy in Jerusalem.
For the previous six weeks, at the Israeli/Gaza border, Palestinians who have
been suffering an imprisonment in their blockaded, seaside enclave had been
(mostly) peacefully protesting the Embassy move, their dire living conditions,
and what they call the Nakba (the Great Catastrophe of Israel’s founding). In
Jerusalem that day, the leadership of Israel and the Trump Administration spoke
eloquently of peace, while 70 miles away, the scene at the border became
extraordinarily lethal with the Israeli military firing live bullets at the
protestors, killing 64 and injuring 1,300. What was supposed to be a
celebratory event for Israel
and the United States,
concluded as a global PR disaster. The Embassy opening was inaugurated with
bloodshed, an ominous beginning for what was hyped as a new chapter in our quest
for peace in the Middle East.
Now the Armenian connections. First: this bloodletting was
followed by angry denunciations around the world, especially by Israel’s on again, off again frenemy: Turkey. Led by
Sultan Erdogan, the Turks berated the Israelis, and in turn, the Israeli
Knesset raged back by showing (but not playing) their Armenian Genocide “card.”
After every crisis with the Turks, the Israeli government momentarily finds its
conscience on this issue—only for them to throw us in their garbage pail of
morality to rot away next to the ideals of respecting human life and the
concept of proportionate force.
Second: the issue of Jerusalem,
which relit the flame of conflict, can be the source of its resolution.
Armenians have a stake in this issue because of our historical rights within
the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem. If Trump, against the opposition of the
world, could unilaterally proclaim Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital thereby “solving” one of the most contentious issues in the negotiation,
then he could do the same for the Palestinians we well. Trump can tell the
Palestinians that his decision on Israel
is final, and then turn around and tell the Israelis that East
Jerusalem will be the capital of a future Palestinian state. After
Israel
received what it wanted, this move by Trump would give the Organization of
Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Palestinians what they want as well. With one
twitter worthy message, Trump can regain the credibility of being a fair
arbiter, while effectively neutralizing one of the most contentious issues in
the negotiation.
While this move would address the issue of capitals, it
would not address a central part of the Jerusalem
negotiations: what happens with the Old
City, and the religious
heritage sites within it. The international community is as much a party to
this issue as the parties on the ground, given the major Judaic, Christian and
Islamic centers of faith and heritage that exist within Old Jerusalem.
One solution which has existed for a long time is to declare
Old Jerusalem an international city. It would be an apolitical, self-governing
entity whose primary role would be to oversee the religious history and
heritage of the three religions that were born in the Middle
East.
It would be an open entity that is welcoming of residents of
all countries, and protected by a force composed of soldiers from all faiths.
In the Holy Fire Ceremony which takes places at the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher every year, a single candle is lit from a flame from what
is believed to be Jesus’ tomb, and that flame is passed from person to person
until the whole church and courtyard are lit with a flame of warmth, love and
peace. In the same vein, an international Old Jerusalem can serve as the
inspirational candle that lights the flames of peace for the region.
As one of the main legal inhabitants of the Old City,
Armenians have a moral obligation in advocating for a peace that can turn Old
Jerusalem into an oasis of peach which can help to bring finality to the death
and destruction that has wracked the Middle East and in turn whose violence has
been unleashed onto the rest of the world.
*********************************************************************************************
4 – Commentary: Israel Must Correct Policy of
Armenian Genocide Non-Recognition
By Prof. Israel Charny
The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem welcomes warmly the proposed recognition by Israel of the
Armenian Genocide. The genocide of
course was against the Armenian people as is signified by the name of the
event, but also included millions of other peoples, especially the Assyrians
and Greeks.
The guiding motif was to remove all non-Islamic people, and
even more so to be rid of all those who are not ‘real’ Turks.
The Institute has waged a battle for recognition of the
Armenian Genocide since 1982 when the Israeli government opposed, and made many
efforts to cancel, the First International Conference on the Holocaust and
Genocide in which out of 300 scheduled presentations there were 6 lectures on
the Armenian Genocide.
As reported in some six articles in the New York Times,
Professor Israel Charny, who was to become director of the Institute and had
originated the conference, held firm and the milestone conference did take place.
Charny and the associate director of the Institute, Professor Yair Auron, are
to date the only two Israelis, and among the few non-Armenians in the world,
who have been honored with the Armenian Presidential Gold Medal, which is the
equivalent of our Israeli Pras Yisrael Award, for battling for recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.
Recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a correction of a
long standing injustice of denial by our Israeli government that is entirely
similar to denials of our Holocaust. The
recognition is almost of as much importance to our ‘Israeli soul’ as it is a
politically significant event.
A further deeper meaning of this welcome correction is that
it can serve as a reminder that a nation’s foreign policy should not be based
exclusively on pragmatic realpolitik considerations but also on moral
considerations. It is the integrated use
of both principles simultaneously that is called for in order for a nation and
people to grow genuinely stronger. Thus,
in our judgment, it is time for reconsideration of Israel’s policy of arms sales
especially to countries who are actively committing genocide.
We lost our Jewish soul in the course of so many wise-guy
and tough-guy denials of the Armenian Genocide over the years.
Fortunately, there remains to our credit that an
overwhelming majority of Israelis and our general cultural knowledge always
remained on the side of recognition.
It is sad to have reached the correction to yes recognize
the Armenian Genocide seemingly only as a result of the abusive, incendiary,
and anti-Semitic ravings of a fascist leader, Erdogan, but blessed be the long
overdue Tikkun (correction) in any case.
Professor Israel W. Charny is the Director of the Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem. He is the author of a recent book, The
Genocide Contagion: How We Commit and Confront Holocaust and Genocide, which is
“a book to look at ourselves BEFORE” a holocaust or genocide erupts and what is
happening inside of us that will determine the roles we play when genocide
takes place.
***************************************************************************************************
5 – Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams, Serge
and Shalet Gharibian Attend Royal Wedding
Two Armenian-American couples were in attendance at the
wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, which took place at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, Sr., and tennis phenom Serena
Williams were among the guests at the wedding ceremony and reception, and
posted photos and videos to Instagram of the royal affair.
Serge and Shalet Gharibian were among the 1200 members of
the public invited to watch the wedding, included in the proceedings as a
tribute to Princess Diana who was known as “the people’s Princess.” The
Gharibians were invited by the Mayor of Windsor to stay at the Norman Tower
to watch the proceedings. The Gharibians, proud "Royalists," also
attended the 2011 wedding of Duke William and Duchess Catherine of Cambridge—known
affectionately as William and Kate.
The Gharibians, from Burbank,
Calif., told Gayle King of CBS
News they “love everything about the royal family” and were proud to see fellow
Armenian-American Alexis Ohanian at the wedding, and were also delighted to see
Amal Clooney, who has worked on a number of international law cases relating to
the recognition of the Armenian genocide. – J.Y. *****************************************************************************************************
6 – Janetsian-Fritz:
Early maternal deprivation alters adult brain function, cognition
When a baby is taken from its mother for even a brief period
early in life, this traumatic event significantly alters the future, adult
function of the brain, according to a new animal model study from the School of Science at Indiana University Purdue
University-Indianapolis (IUPUI). These changes in the brain are similar to
disturbances in brain structure and function that are found in people at risk
for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.
The study was conducted by IUPUI graduate student Sarine
Sona Janetsian-Fritz in the laboratory of associate professor of psychology
Christopher Lapish. Janetsian-Fritz is a fourth generation Armenian-American.
She graduated from Rose and Alex
Pilibos Armenian
School in 2006. She
received a bachelor's degree in Psychology from CSUN in 2010. As a graduate
student at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis, she studied the
effects of illegal drugs as well as neuropsychiatric disorders, including Schizophrenia,
on the brain.
She received master's degree in 2012, and a Ph.D. in 2017 in
Addiction Neuroscience. Her research has gained recognition and great interest
worldwide. She is currently a Post-doctoral fellow at Indiana University School
of Medicine in the Neurology department, continuing her research career.
In the study, young rats were removed from their mothers for
24 hours when they were nine days old, which is a critical period of brain
development. The resulting scans revealed that, unlike animals that were not
separated from their mother during this crucial period, the separated rats
exhibited significant behavioral, as well as biological and physiological,
brain abnormalities in adulthood.
“Rat and human brains have similar structure and connectivity,”
Lapish said. “Understanding what happens in the brain of a young rat that’s
removed from its mother gives us important insight into how this type of early
trauma—perhaps comparable to the incarceration of a human mother—affects the
young human brain."
"In this study, we found memory impairment, as well as
less communication between brain regions, in the animals that had been removed
from their mothers, among other neurological changes,” said study corresponding
author Sarine Janetsian-Fritz, now a postdoctoral fellow in neuropsychology at
the Indiana University School of Medicine. “These are all clues to how a
traumatic event early in life could increase a person’s risk of receiving a
schizophrenia diagnosis in the future.”
The causes of schizophrenia and the delay in the appearance
of symptoms of this lifelong disease remain a mystery.
“Children exposed to early-life stress or deprivation are at
higher risk for mental illness and addictions later in life, including
schizophrenia,” said study co-author Brian F. O’Donnell, professor of
psychological and brain sciences at IU Bloomington. “We have identified
enduring changes in the brain and behavior that result from one type of stress
in a rodent. These types of brain changes might mediate the effects of adverse
events on children. Thus, policies or interventions that mitigate stress to
children could reduce vulnerability to emotional disorders in adulthood.” *************************************************************************************************
7- COAF
SMART Center
Set to Transform Armenia's
Lori Region
YEREVAN / NEW
YORK—Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) has been at the forefront in
advancing rural communities throughout Armenia since 2004, with nearly $40
million being raised in support of numerous infrastructure improvement projects
and comprehensive community-led programs in education, healthcare and social
services. On its 10th anniversary, COAF announced its novel SMART Initiative to
expanding its vital work in each of Armenia’s rural provinces.
The innovative rapid expansion strategy will establish
state-of-the-art educational SMART Campuses throughout Armenia,
offering rural populations with groundbreaking programs in education, economic
development and healthcare. The flagship COAF SMART Campus will open its doors
in the Lori region of Armenia
on May 27, providing its 150,000 people with access to technology-driven
programs from a broad and diverse range of disciplines.
As one of the most trusted organizations engaged in rural
development in Armenia,
COAF has been empowering the country’s rural population by utilizing
collaborative and inclusive approaches. COAF’s main objective has been to serve
as a catalyst in fostering a sense of ownership among Armenia’s rural
inhabitants, encouraging them to become active stakeholders in their future
advancement. Customized approaches addressing the specific needs and challenges
of each community have provided COAF with crucial knowledge and experience on
how to bring about dramatic changes in rural education, as well as raising
awareness on a global level.
The COAF SMART Initiative will continue connecting rural Armenia to the
international community via technology, providing access to experts worldwide.
The COAF SMART Campuses will offer rural teachers, healthcare professionals,
social workers and businesses with vital skills that will spawn a new era of
creativity and innovation. Additional emphasis will be placed on language and
communication, local entrepreneurship/economic development, active citizenship
and personal development. Information technology and foreign languages are a
priority for SMART programs; all programs and learning materials will utilize
digital solutions and English.
During the opening ceremony of the COAF SMART Campus on May
27, guests from around the world will tour the regional educational hub and
learn about the various SMART programs being offered, such as blockchain
technology, robotics, agriculture, child development, media literacy, arts,
science and health education.
A number of COAF SMART partners will also be showcased at
the official opening. One highlight is the SAP Next-Gen Lab which will bring
the latest blockchain technology to students at the COAF SMART Center. Students in the region will gain
access to SAP’s instructional resources in virtual reality design and iOS
application development. Other key
partnerships include Arloopa, a leader in augmented reality (AR) and virtual
reality (VR) founded in Armenia
and operating globally.
COAF is also collaborating with PicsArt, an app that allows
over 100 million monthly users worldwide, the ability to edit and share photos
in fun and creative ways. A new partnership has also been forged with Instigate
Robotics and Instigate Training Center,
aimed at bringing diverse technology and educational knowhow to the COAF SMART
Center.
Creative Educational Technologies (CET), the official
representative of LEGO in Armenia,
will also be conducting workshops with children on the day of the opening. Arpi
Solar, a producer of clean energy and solar power will also support the
opening. In addition, artwork by Syrian-Armenian children will also be
exhibited on loan from the Cafesjian
Center for the Arts.
Special guests will include high level Armenian government
officials, heads of international institutions, members of the diplomatic
community, COAF donors and supporters, along with individuals from the Diaspora
who will be in Armenia to
mark the 100th anniversary of the First
Armenian Republic.
For more information, email [email protected].
************************************************************************************************
8- Hockney and
Friends… Including Larry Gagosian, Joan Agajanian Quinn
By Peter Davis
(C Magazine)—David Hockney has a large, sweeping circle of
close friends. And from July 2013 through March 2016, he painted portraits of
82 of his most intimate pals, family members and acquaintances, including
longtime studio manager J-P Gonçalves de Lima; art world luminaries Irving Blum
and Douglas Baxter; Frank Gehry; his youngest brother, John Hockney; fashion
designer Celia Birtwell; photographer Ray Charles White; conceptual artist John
Baldessari; his housekeeper Patricia Choxon; and 13-year-old Rufus Hale (the
son of artists Tacita Dean and Matthew Hale), who was just 11 when he sat for
the artist.
Although Hockney once proclaimed, “I don’t value prizes of
any sort,” he has won countless awards (in 2003, he received the prestigious
Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award of the Florence Biennale). Yet
when offered a knighthood in 1990, he declined the recognition. Charmingly
modest, Hockney is considered by many to be the greatest living artist today.
“Hockney is so famous, so popular, such a great talker and character that it’s
easy to take him for granted as an artist,” Jonathan Jones, the art critic of
The Guardian, once said. “He is one of only a handful of 20th-century British
artists who added anything to the image bank of the world’s imagination.”
All 82 sitters arrived at Hockney’s studio, and all posed in
the same chair on the same platform with the same blue curtain behind them. The
portraits—each strikingly distinct thanks to the organic emotion captured from
each subject through gaze and body language—are hung in chronological order in
two light-filled spaces at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The massive
“82 Portraits and 1 Still-life” exhibition is ultimately viewed as elements
that comprise one extraordinary body of work: a truly up-close, personal look
at Hockney’s innermost circle. The portraits (and one still life), all acrylic
on canvas, originated at the Royal Academy of Arts in London before traveling
to: Venice, Italy; Bilbao, Spain; Melbourne, Australia; and finally Los
Angeles, the city Hockney has lovingly called home for more than three decades.
Each portrait took two to three days to complete. Sitters
arrived at his studio at 9:30 a.m. sharp and held their pose for three hours
while Hockney sketched in charcoal the first day to outline what he wanted to
capture. The afternoon was another three-hour session.
World renowned gallery owner Larry Gagosian, as well as
artist and curator Joan Agajanian Quinn were among Hockney’s friends who sat
for a portrait.
“My husband Jack and I have been close to David for more
than 50 years. I think our friendship has endured so long because of our mutual
curiosity, interest in life and constant humor. David calls me Bossy
Boots….which always made Jack laugh. Laughter is David’s prescription for
living a good long life (along with cigarettes!),” Agajanian Quinn told The
California Courier in an email. “I was in Houston
when he called and asked me to sit for this series. In light of our many years
of friendship I was still thrilled to be asked. I flew home the next day to
begin the three-day sitting. I took my camera with me to the chair. I sat on my
camera to hide it from David, in order to document him each time he looked
away. Little did I know that the studio assistant was video taping us. So, when
they played back the video, I was caught sneaking snaps. We all burst into
laughter.”
Peter Goulds, Hockney’s art dealer for 40 years and the
founder of L.A. Louver gallery in Venice,
notes that Hockney is completely silent while working. “He doesn’t talk. Your
exchange is in the pauses during cigarettes. I was very relaxed those three
days. I’m pleased with it. My mother didn’t like it. She said, ‘You don’t have
pouting lips.’” As Goulds’ eyes darted around the gallery at LACMA, the early
afternoon California
sun infusing a sun-kissed glow, he noticed: “The light here is very much like
the top light in his studio. These paintings are being seen in a way that is
corresponding to the way they were made—startlingly so, in that sense. This has
this generosity of light. The beauty is how far they read across the room.”
Hockney is famously approachable and friendly, willingly
posing for photo after photo with his friends and fans alike. He’s thoughtful
with every person who approaches him and makes lots of eye contact—as if he is
studying you to paint. “When I was finishing these portraits I did start
looking back. I looked way, way back and that’s what made me see the reverse
perspective. I’d used it before and then I realized I could do something with
this today,” he explains, nodding toward the 25-foot photomural, his newest
masterpiece. “I’ve really been looking back at my work in a way I hadn’t before
for 20 or 30 years,” he reflects. “I’ve always said I live in the now.”
“82 Portraits and 1 Still-life” runs through July 29 at Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. For more information, visit lacma.org.
This article appeared in the May 2018 issue of C Magazine. ************************************************************************************************
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mailing addresses. Those changes can be made through our e-mail, ,
or by phone, (818) 409-0949.