Martin Barooshian

Martin Barooshian (b. 1929-2022) was an American master painter and printmaker. Over his 70-year career, Barooshian worked in a broad array of media and transitioned through many styles. His paintings and prints dance among many artistic movements--seamlessly combining Symbolist, Expressionist, Dadaist, Romantic, primitive, and Renaissance elements. Though his work does not easily fit into any one category, Barooshian considered himself an Abstract Biomorphic Surrealist. Barooshian's mature biomorphic style emerged in the late 1950s, revealing enigmatic dreamscapes which explore the poetry of form, connections among individuals, and humanity's place in the cosmic order.

Regardless, one can always identify Barooshian’s works by their packed visual fields, dazzling color sense, and compositions that create tension between organic patterns and geometric order. He often makes use of repetitive patterning of tiny elements that create order and beauty out of apparent chaos. He is also known as a meticulous technician and innovator, recognized for his masterful advancement and adaptation of viscosity printing.

Background

Barooshian was born in Chelsea, MA, and studied and trained all over the world, including in the United States, France, England, India, and the Middle East. He earned his fourth and fifth-year diplomas from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, having studied with Boston Expressionist and painting department head Karl Zerbe, graphics department head and co-founder of the Boston Printmakers Ture Bengtz, and lithographer and watercolorist Richard C. Bartlett. He studied in Paris with master lithographers Gaston Dorfinant and Jean Pons at their Ateliers and with Stanley William Hayter at his famed etching and engraving studio Atelier 17. Barooshian also earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Tufts University and a Master of Arts in Art History degree from Boston University.

Barooshian also served as a past president of the Society of American Graphic Artists.

Recognition

Barooshian has received international recognition for his artistic contributions, having participated in hundreds of exhibitions and over 50 solo shows. He is represented in the collections of many major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, and the Addison Gallery of American Art. He has won several awards including from the National Academy of Design, the Library of Congress, and the Currier Gallery.