Yuroz
Yuroz was born in a country without many freedoms, but where
the joy of life, the passion of love, and the desire to make
the world a better place was strong. His parents were hardworking
people who fiercely loved their children and committed their
lives to giving them the strongest ground in which to plant
their own futures. Yuroz' father, who was known as "Marchik"
or little boss, was a happy man who made everyone laugh and
loved to talk to anyone, no matter what nation they hailed from.
It is from his father Yuroz learned tolerance. Yuroz' mother
was truly the mother that we read about behind great individuals.
She was a driven woman, and she would make sure that all of
her children would realize their full potential. With the love
of his parents, Yuroz himself became a dedicated and loving
father. His mother recognized her sons' talent and knew that
his determination to create great art should be known to all.
At the age of ten, with her son and his art in hand she helped
him to gain acceptance into the Akop Kodjoyan School of Art,
as one of the youngest students ever accepted into this very
prestigious art school. Four years later he graduated with honors.
At the age of 17, Yuroz would go on to Architectural and Art
School at the University of Yerevan, and earn his masters in
Architecture.
He loved many things about his country, but could never accept
the Soviet views on self expression. Yuroz has said "Art
thrives only in a free society" and with those words he
began his journey to escape this oppression and find the freedom
that would allow his artistic dreams to bear fruit. Yuroz arrived
in America in 1985 at the age of 29 without friends, family,
or much money, but with a passion that he unveiled through his
drawings and paintings. By 1986 Yuroz was showing his work in
a public gallery and in 1988 he had his first major one man
show.
Victor Forbes of Sunstorm Magazine was one of the first art
writers to use his voice to share his thoughts on Yuroz and
made some interesting predictions. In an original article dating
back to the late 80's he was asked to compare Yuroz to Picasso,
"Who else at work as an artist today commands such widespread
attention? Who else is so prolific, popular and accomplished
in so many media?
Technically accomplished, he has developed a number of styles,
creating from the depths of darkness. Who else has had entire
episodes of some of the most watched television shows in history
written around his art?" After some thought he answered,
"Yuroz has far surpassed Picasso [. . .]. Yuroz is a generous
soul with the strong yet innocent heart of a lion." Yuroz
has a great deal of respect for Picasso and he explains it like
this, "I admire Picasso for one reason: he would never
stop with what he already created. He never was a sponge to
his own material. He'd see art in everything. There is no destination.
Every time there is a destination, there is a new beginning.
Your imagination doesn't have a destination. If you ask me,
art is not just about a beautiful painting hanging on your wall.
People's understanding of art has to be deeper. Art is basically
religion, the essence of living-what you are trying to accomplish
in your life everyday, creating your own life. The object can
be canvas, or yourself-the human being. Art is about creating
your environment. "Yuroz considers himself a tool. His
heart dictates to his hand. After absorbing and digesting all
of these things, his work is a documentation of his own journey.
A journey without a destination, a world without an end.
Yuroz learned at a very young age that your time on this earth
was limited. He watched many of his friends and family members
give up their lives to a cause and chose early on to make sure
he left a message. He made this statement in his early thirties,
"My work is to understand about men and women in creation,
not just about love and all of those wonderful things, but about
expressing yourself. If you paint something beautiful, it doesn't
have to be happy. There is a law of beauty that is written by
no one - it's just inside of you." He also speaks of the
most amazing instrument that God ever gave us was our brain.
He said "through all of my processes from beginning to
now, there has always been a change and this always comes when
I see I can make it better. Each time I achieve something, I
discover something I could have done better, so the next painting
comes up. It is never ending, you are always going to research
something you can never accomplish. You become demanding to
yourself and to your work. The best is inside of you, your own
criteria, your own values. I don't know how this thought process
happens, but for me it is limitless. I want to know who I am
and what is inside my brain. I long to know how much I can grow,
but to do that, I know I must have the courage to destroy what
I have created. This is the biggest fear of creative people.
Many great artists ended their careers in their early days by
spending the rest of their lives recreating what established
them. As you grow up, your vision and your views change. Your
knowledge deepens and your creative mind needs to be true to
your artistic integrity."
The artist has remained true to his artistic integrity by going
on to master many different mediums. With the release of the
United Nations Mural for Human Rights created entirely in the
technique of cubism, along with the opening of a one-man cubist
show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, Yuroz has taken his
place in history along with the fathers of cubism. Cubism is
an avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting
and sculpture in the 1900's. Instead of viewing subjects from
a single, fixed angle, the cubist breaks them into many different
facets, so that several aspects of the subject can be seen simultaneously.
In a final statement in an article written by Bruce Helander,
a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and curator
of the Yuroz exhibit; this becomes part of the history of art.
"Yuroz' innovative style and captivating subject matter
require us to take a fresh look at cubism and how these images
relate to us in a contemporary society. His exceptional strength
as a painter comes from a natural intuitive talent supported
by an exhaustive traditional arts education, which began at
age ten. He later continued his studies in architecture whose
principals he applied to the structure of his geometric-based
compositions. In this most recent series of his work, the power
of the human spirit is celebrated in colorful, poetic canvases
that document the visual excitement of relationships, passion
and togetherness. Even without the memorable narrative or figurative
content, these paintings remain well crafted, with backgrounds
that utilize an extensive, built-up, harmonic palette of aromatic
color and texture. It's impossible to find an area in his pictures
that is not fully resolved and inspirational. This artist continually
challenges himself intellectually and creatively by abstracting
the figure into cubist sections that are considerably more difficult
to articulate successfully. Picasso and Braque have a respectable
colleague."
Yuroz emerged on the art scene in the United States in 1987
with paintings and drawings that felt as though you could take
them off the canvas and put them on a pedestal. He would tell
us that each painting was alive for him and had a human dimension.
Eventually he would bring these large sculptural bodies to life
with the release of his first sculptures in 199-. He, like other
artists at the time, was offered the opportunity to have his
paintings transformed into sculpture by a foundry artisan, but
being Yuroz, with his demand for quality, he chose to instead
wait until he was ready.
His first sculpture, The Delicate Balance, changed the way
we would perceive Yuroz as an artist forever. He had crossed
the dimensional boundaries, and gave us the ability to follow
the curves of his art with our hands. To join the lovers as
they basked in the warmth of each other. With the release of
his two new sculptures this year, The Whisper with its ability
to draw you in and hear their secrets, and Tranquility, which
at first glance takes your breath away with its sensual pose,
he has taken us deeper into the creation of his art and the
power it evokes as it wraps around our minds and allows us to
dream.
In addition, Yuroz has released his first pieces of very unique
sculpted jewelry in gold and silver, decorated with diamonds.
A small collection of the pieces were unveiled at the New York
Art Fair this year to an excited audience. Diane Herman, owner
of Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art in Sedona, Arizona
stated, "As you wear each piece, it becomes part of your
being, a sensual experience that allows your mind to travel
in the emotion evoked by the jewelry. Whether it is Yuroz's
jewelry, painting, sculpture, his work is an emotional experience
for me. The 'Love' is what it is all about. After I saw Yuroz's
UN painting, (magnificent!) he brought it all together for me.
Every culture is represented in these six huge canvases. I viewed
the generations of struggles and how we all have grown. He showed
me in this painting that with effort and hard work combined
with integrity that the world is growing to a better place.
Together with time, we are all doing it...together. Thank you
Yuroz, for showing us we are all 'One.' As I viewed the painting,
I see we all have the same struggles -- maybe a little different
in shape and size. If we work hard and our basis is love and
compassion then, with our family, with our world, we can succeed
and rise as a whole. Yuroz himself has been a fine example of
this." Like all of his art forms, Yuroz spent years educating
himself on the intricacies of creating jewelry before designing
and bringing these very special miniature pieces of art to the
world.
Yuroz is also passionate about remembering where he came from-
and those who were with him. He donates the proceeds from a
variety of original pieces and limited editions to foundations
world wide that reach out to people in need. He has personally
raised close to a million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. He also has a soft spot for children's charities. His
donations have also helped The CLARE Foundation in Santa Monica,
California, Camp Good Times in Los Angeles, Saint Stephens Shelter
in Minneapolis, The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, The
Pine Street Inn in Boston, The University Hospitals Ireland
Center in Cleveland, St. Bonaventure University in New York,
ABC Inc (Action for Brazil's Children) in Fort Lauderdale, The
Make a Wish Foundation, Cinevegas Film Festival, The Rock n
Roll Marathon, Cancer Wellness Center in Chicago, Juvenile Diabetes
Foundation, Aids Task Force, Comic Relief, Operation USA and
to many more to mention.
Some people might think that Yuroz has reached the dreamlike
state of one of the figures in his canvases, their heads tilted
as if in peaceful slumber, but he continues to surge forward
because art is, in his words, a "religion of duty".
He creates simply because he must. Only Yuroz knows why he is
so driven to inspire the unimpassioned, to impassion the unromantic,
to romanticize what he sees as a marvelous journey through this
world's lives, loves, and hopes. To ask him...all you have to
do is look at his work.
Coming Soon
