Mirror-Spectator: Armen Agop’s Minimalist Approach to Sculpture and Painting in Italy and Egypt
By Maydaa Nadar
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
CAIRO — His latest exhibition of sculptures and paintings is called Taking Time, which took place at the Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea gallery in Pietrasanta, Italy, last summer to much acclaim. His Armenian role models in arts are Gomidas and Arshile Gorky (Vostanik Adoian). When he talks about sculpture, he not only makes you fall in love with art but with your entire surroundings, even with your inner self. Meet Egyptian-Armenian sculptor Armen Guerboyan, known by the pseudonym Armen Agop. “My name is Armen Guerboyan. I just use Agop, which was my father’s name, as an artistic name,” Armen explains.
Armen’s grandfather was part of the famous resistance at Musa Dagh. He was the younger brother of Movses Der Kalousdian, one of the leaders of the revolt during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. French ships brought the Armenians from Musa Dagh to safety in Port Said on the Egyptian coast. Later, the family moved to Lebanon, but Armen’s grandfather chose to stay in Egypt, where Armen was born in Cairo in 1969.