Jean Kazandjian

The recurrent theme that Kazandjian’s work evokes is that of The Great Mother, The Earth Mother (Anahid in Armenian mythology). This Venus, Madonna, Goddess, Woman is not the domesticated patriarchal image of woman linked to earth in a traditional way, not the passive object of the male gaze, but a uniquely new/and also ancient, non-androcentric Subject.

The artist’s gaze perceives the female as both the matrix of all life and the empowered presence, who makes reality cohere, and whose consciousness presides over all of creation. I would venture to say that for Kazandjian, the female is the generic human. She enfolds and gives birth to all living things, and his definition of living things includes art. This Mother Goddess also represents both painting and fecundity, for as Jean Kazandjian has mentioned to me: “painting gives birth to extraordinary children.”

Excerpted from the artist's website.