Page 47 - Studio International - April 1965

Orpheus is the artist prototype. His grisly death—he was
dismembered by the furious women who were said to
have resented his exclusive passion for Eurydice—is
interpreted through the romantic tradition : The artist is
set upon by the mob who fear his prophetic powers.
Orpheus the artist is presented by Boghosian in the
many episodes of his legendary life, but the tragic—the
years after his youthful adventures with the Argonauts
—is always uppermost. His preoccupation with
Orpheus began around 1951 when he undertook a
suite of woodcuts accompanied by his own poems.
'I'm not really a poet', he explains, 'but once in a while I
catch a good line'.
In the woodcut suite, Eurydice demonstrates Bog-
hosian's incurable habit of associating. She becomes
Venus:
Soft on repeating lines
On gold my lady stands
Gold hair upon the shell
Close to the shell on green
Shades of gold are seen
Heart play upon this scene
Laid in the waters green
Shape of the golden shell
Wherein my lady lies
Soft on repeating lines.
Orpheus, the embittered artist, chants :
Here at night I sing
All I know of hate
To break all living things
That in their aimless flight
Revolve around the green
and :
I shall forever hate
These most unholy things
They dance away from light
They dance around the green
The onyx and the gold
Remain within the ring.
These earlier poetic sorties (amateurish but touching)
into the Orphic netherworld are more literal than the
subsequent constructions. Boghosian is a queer mix-
ture of poet and maker. Once he assembles his materials
in order to shape them, a plastic force takes over. It is
for this reason that his work stands up so well to the
charge that he is a literary artist. He is equipped to deal
with two meanings—the meaning of his myth and the
meaning inherent in his selection of materials. Here,
his admitted affinity with that other singular American
plastic poet, Joseph Cornell, is less apparent. Where
Cornell confines his drama and allegory to the intimate
proscenium box, Boghosian moves out into space,
availing himself of the terms and scale of modern
sculpture.
His procedure varies, but in general he works from a
firm guiding idea like a dramatist. He speaks un-
consciously as though the myth and the sequences he
draws from it were an epic drama, talking for instance
of maintaining 'the continuity of my central character'.
Once he has the theme fixed, he forages, seeking the
right objects for his composition. He counts on in-
tuition, coincidence and Providence to lead him to the
right objects and forms. Primarily his materials are
aged American relics—such things as 19th century hat
forms, porcelain and wooden dolls' heads, 19th century
dressmakers' dummies designed for hoop skirts, timber
from beaches, old barn doors, aged harness leather,
marbles, and even the antique door of a prison.