Armen EloyanA while ago the elephant ordered the ants to make him a burger (8), 2009

Marker pen and watercolour on paper

16 1⁄8 x 12 1⁄8 in

About the artist

I need these cartoon figures to guide me into the painting. They are just a reason to reach in. Armen Eloyan (b. 1966, Yerevan, Armenia) is a figurative painter and sculptor whose wry, darkly absurdist work hints at sinister narratives. Eloyan’s practice is informed by his childhood in Soviet- controlled Armenia and by years working as a studio assistant to the renowned Armenian animator Robert Sahakyants. This early exposure to animation would leave its mark on the artist’s vernacular, and Eloyan is now best known for heavily impastoed paintings populated by cartoon figures lifted from comics and other popular illustrations. The artist’s instantly recognizable sardonic figures also make appearances in cast bronze sculptures. Like the unblinking cartoon protagonists of Philip Guston, his alternately grinning and grimacing subjects disconcert their viewer but are impossible to look away from. “Cartoons parody the culture; they reflect it in a way that’s entertaining but also profound,” Eloyan has said of his lifelong fascination. “How humans behave like animals sometimes—how ridiculous politics can be.” A virtuosic colorist and draftsman who counters atmospheric pastoral compositions with near-abstract expressionist works, Eloyan also oscillates between explication and ironic understatement in his titles. His paintings present their viewer with puzzles as difficult to untangle as the political circumstances they comment on.

About the artist

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