Varujan Boghosian

Born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Armenian heritage in 1926, Varujan Yegan Boghosian Boghosian was an American artist, best known for his sculptures and assemblages. His art was inspired by a wide range of influences, including literature, history, art, and music, with frequent allusions to myth and poetry throughout his work. The myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, for example, were a central and enduring theme in his artistic journey. Drawing from the traditions of Surrealism and Dada, Boghosian’s assemblages and collages playfully explore the boundaries between dream and reality. He drew heavily on his extensive personal archive of found objects, gathered together in his home and studio. The images and objects he used often showed the passage of time, and his creations frequently combined seemingly unrelated items. Reflecting on his artistic process, Boghosian is quoted as saying, "I don't make anything. I find everything.”

He served in the navy at the end of World War II and, like many of his generation, after his service attended college on the GI bill. He enrolled first at Connecticut Teacher's College (1946–48) and then the Vesper School of Art in Boston (1948–50). He began to show his watercolors and woodcuts at local galleries whiles at Vespers and had his first solo exhibition in 1950. Upon his return from a trip to study and work in Italy on a Fulbright grant, friends suggested that he meet and share his work with the ex-Bauhaus professor and master of color theory Josef Albers, who was then teaching at Yale University. Albers was impressed with the younger artist's work and admitted Boghosian to the program, where he received first his B.A. and then his M.F.A. in 1958. Boghosian showed with the legendary Stable Gallery, founded by Eleanor Ward, consistently between 1963 and 1966, and in 1968, Boghosian began to exhibit with the historic Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, Duchamp's dealer in America.

Boghosian taught at the University of Florida and Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Yale, Brown, and then Dartmouth. Boghosian's work has been actively exhibited in over 75 one-man exhibitions including the Arts Club of Chicago (1970), The American Academy in Rome (1986), the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (1988), the Norton Gallery of Art (1992), the Hood Art Museum, Dartmouth (1989), the Toledo Museum of Art (2013), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2018).