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Lot Essay
'On 12th July 1974 Paul Guiragossian, my father, lost his leg in an elevator accident, and underwent long treatments, followed by many more months of rest and rehabilitation at home in Lebanon. I was barely two and a half years old at the time and I'd wake up at 5 am to go straight to his bedside where our days would begin with singing, story-telling, playing with puppets and drawing. He called me 'Nanou' and would tell me stories where I was the heroine on my horse saving the animals of the jungle and preserving nature. He would draw me on the horse and I would scribble on top but he would then sign and date them 'Paul et Nanou', until I was able to learn how to write and start signing my own name. Throughout the years my father saved every single drawing I had done until the early 1980's. Recently, when I rediscovered those drawings, I realized that everything I've been painting as an adult has been unconsciously coming back to me from my childhood. This imaginary world that my father distracted me with was what shielded me from the atrocities of the civil war in Lebanon. During these hard times my only refuge was my art and my music. As I rediscovered my preserved childhood drawings I got very inspired to do my latest series based on them. My painting Wildlife depicts the giant tiger with the crazy stripes, which I had drawn so often as a child.'
(Manuella Guiragossian)
(Manuella Guiragossian)