Kassabian: Yuroz

Yuroz paints to break the boundaries of esthetics, to dwell in the realm of what pleases the heart, the mind, the soul. An expression of the profound desire in the artist to leave a lasting print in the heart, to affect on the very dimension in us that makes us humane, loving, and consequently in love with life. His themes are daring, his touch tender, and the spirit engulfing. The passion in Yuroz is the defining groundwork of his genius. He breathes into his characters from the very elements of his personality, his insatiable wish to embrace beauty, to thrive in the majestic realm of human emotionality with ultimate freedom, desire, and delicacy. He emerges from his quest with the warmth of an unselfish lover, as a ready lover who pleases and nourishes the whole existence of his inspiration; he shares his world with his audience. The exquisiteness of the process of his lovemaking with his paintings with honesty and truthfulness to his experiences makes his work irresistibly overwhelming and undeniably relevant.

Yuroz narrates personal and universal existential themes on an ongoing search of self-awareness and self- realization. The innovative style of communicating through a condensed media of integrated art forms leaves an unprecedented personal impact on the viewer. His canvases tell tales of their intricate states, thoughts, plans, and dreams along a time continuum Yuroz beautifully manipulates through the use of a set of symbols. His most outstanding symbol is the blue rose, a mental hybrid of the combined attributes of the rose and the color blue. The blue rose has the soothing, healing, and peaceful connotations of the color blue, added onto the most powerful human emotion, love. A blue rose then is a concept that signifies healing through love. Yuroz consciously reflects his vision on life by confidently and repeatedly painting blue roses signaling that blue roses are an essential feature in his themes. In fact, lovers on his canvases are there because of the blue rose, just because the offering of a blue rose symbolizes the compelling force that brings them together. A promise of unconditional love, painted in the color that vibrates the strongest in magnetic and electrical fields, holds the secret of existence and propagates life. The pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, the antidote for annihilation. Thus the blue rose and the pomegranate are coherently inseparable parts along presenting Yuroz’s philosophy on romance and on the fiery interplay of the images he gives life to. The book is another symbol that shows one’s personal world, secrets, wishes, and desires. A window symbolizes hope, new horizons, an open way for change. A bottle of wine symbolizes intimacy and togetherness between lovers. And red stockings hold sexual readiness of a woman to give in to the desire of her man.

Yuri Gevorgian’s life has been a journey to meet ongoing challenges and set rising standards of reference. Born in 1956 in then-Soviet Armenia, his mother was the key agent to pave the road of an artist. At 12, Yuri graduated as the youngest student ever from the prestigious Hagop Kodjoyan art school. Gevorgian, however, continued his education in a scientific field and earned his master’s degree in architecture. He was obliged, however, to hold a different occupation for seven years. As the Soviet regime and an outspoken zest for peace and beauty could not co-exist, his activities to defend human rights soon clashed hard against the Soviet regime, and Gevorgian was stripped of all legal papers, and hence was denied the right to work and travel. The seven years in home confinement he spent working as a woman’s dressmaker. It was then that he met a young woman called Roza and created the label “Yuroz” for their work together, which is a combination of the initials of the names Yuri and Roza. Yuroz kept the name as an homage to his friendship with Roza and in order not to be associated with the Russian artists who gained entry to the U.S. in the mid 1980’s.

The year 1985 finally opened the doors of freedom to America and the date marked the beginning of Yuroz’s paintings. The first series of his paintings was called the “Hollywood Boulevard,” depicting the people who were his immediate environment then, his reality for two years of life without shelter. His first exhibition in 1988 was an absolute success, and henceforth his art was seen as uniquely sensual and highly sophisticated. In 2000, he was commissioned by the United Nations to create artwork for UN stamps on “Respect for Refugees.” In 2004, Yuroz was commissioned by the UN to depict the struggle for human rights, which culminated in six beautiful murals. In 2009, for the first time in 800 years, the Vatican commissioned a non-Italian artist to paint the newly canonized Saint Tadini, a magnificent masterpiece of Yuroz that was immensely admired by both the Vatican and the Italian public. To celebrate Yuroz’s genius, the art festival that will be held this summer in Rome will show Yuroz’s UN murals as the opening ceremony of the event.

Yuroz’s daring spirit with free and inquisitive mind poses his artwork as an absolutely meaningful and rewarding experience, when the artist in acts of total freedom plunges into the deepest core of his self, explores sensations, dreams, desires, and whatever he can find in the depths of his being. His mastery is his unparalleled ability to relate all the daily, human and universal experiences in a rare personal charisma and fiery soul. Yuroz inspires a big leap towards living the art of love on a daily basis, to love in the same burning sensation that he throughout many mediums creates and shares as one of the most modest yet grand name in the contemporary art scene.

“Picasso and Brague have a respectable colleague,” but Picasso and Brague also would have been enchanted by the passion and art of Yuroz.

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Dzovig Kassabian

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• Kassabian: Yuroz - April 12, 2010