Emmanuel Guiragossian

Born in 1954, Emmanuel Guiragossian is a prize-winning Lebanese-German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, publisher and musician of Armenian descent. The eldest son of renowned artist Paul Guiragossian, he belongs to the sixth generation of artists in his family of musicians, iconographists and painters.

Guiragossian began painting at an early age, inspired by the dramatic events narrated to him in childhood by his paternal grandmother, relating to the Armenian Genocide and various other conflicts.

Aged just 12, Guiragossian painted a self-portrait which prompted his father, on seeing it for the first time, to exclaim: “My son has become an artist”. From then on, Emmanuel took up residence in his father’s studio and assumed the role of apprentice. He went on to take up roles as a creative designer and concept artist in an advertising company, where he won several prizes.

Emmanuel Guiragossian gained a place at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1972 and furthered his studies at the Michelangelo Academy in Florence the following year. In 1974, he obtained a scholarship to attend the Hochshüle fur Bildende Kunst in Dresden, specialising in Artistic Anatomy, and graduated with honours before returning to Lebanon.

Upon his return, Guiragossian taught and also worked closely with his father, focusing on tasks that ranged from organising art shows to archiving. He founded his publishing house Emmagoss and also took on high-profile consulting projects relating to the development of cultural spaces and museums.

In 1991, Guiragossian founded the Emmagoss art gallery in Lebanon which quickly became a renowned regional art gallery, holding major exhibitions of work by leading artists. Collaborative initiatives included an event with the Spanish Museum of Marbella to bring the exhibition ‘De Picasso à nos Jours’ to Lebanon in 1995. In 2004, he opened The Paul Guiragossian Contemporary Art Museum in the suburbs of Beirut – a long-held dream he shared with his father – and, three years later, founded a second Emmagoss art gallery in Dresden.

Emmanuel Guiragossian’s oil on canvas work is often figurative, featuring people gathered together not only in groups but intertwined, his subjects seemingly taking comfort or solace in each other, or offering support, in a way that emits deep, raw emotion and instils the same in audiences. Simple, silhouetted outlines devoid of detail of people and animals are brought to life by a colourful palette in compositions that are evidently deeply personal reflections and, simultaneously, representations of broader humanity.

Emmanuel Guiragossian’s work has been exhibited in solo and collective shows, art fairs and auctions worldwide for more than three decades. His work is on permanent show at Emmagoss, Dresden, alongside that of German artists, such as the late A.R. Penk and Marcus Lüpertz, and Emmagoss Lebanon. 

Guiragossian lives between Lebanon and Germany.