Seta Manoukian
First Atom of a Dream on Trauma
1970 -
Oil on canvas
90 x 110 cm.
From the White period series
After an extended stay in Rome, Seta Manoukian came back to Beirut self-reflective, deep within her mind and beyond emotions. While social and political problems were starting to become overwhelming, she discovered meditation. As a purification process she began painting white bed sheets over white backgrounds, painting self-portraits with mirrors in her bedroom. In this context, the white walls had a great significance, synonymous of empty spaces. Horizontal and vertical compositions bear symbolism in Manoukian’s whole career. These paintings are horizontally positioned as if the weight of the subject was a burden too heavy to carry. In her hospital drawings (1976), also in the Saradar Collection, the bed reappears, populated with wounded civilians and militiamen.
Reference SM-P-1970-B
About the artist
Born in Beirut, Lebanon 1945
Works and Lives in Los Angeles, U.S.A
Born into an Armenian family artist Seta Manoukian grew up in Beirut, Lebanon.
Taught by Paul Guiragossian, she began to draw at an early age. She won the first prize in an art competition organized by the Italian Embassy at the age of seventeen and was sent to Perugia, Italy, for three months to study art. When Seta finished her studies, her father enrolled her into the Academy of Belle Arte in Rome. She returned to Beirut in the seventies, after four years in Rome.
During this period, Manoukian surrounded by artists, writers and journalists, started becoming aware of the grave political problems that her country was facing.
When the war began in 1975, Manoukian was teaching at the Lebanese University. She began volunteering in poor neighborhoods to teach children how to draw and paint. The children’s paintings and drawings were made into two books “War Through the Eyes of Lebanese Children” Published in 1977, and “Taches Rouge Et Blue.”
After 10 years in Lebanon, with the fear of being kidnapped, Manoukian travelled to LA and joined the Sherry Frumkin Gallery in Santa Monica. Still shaken by the war, Manoukian’s work revolved around themes of displacement and the madness of war. She later transitioned into more organic shapes inspired by her increasing spirituality.
In 2000, she traveled to Sri-Lanka to study Buddhist philosophy and meditation and decided to stay and further delve into Dharma, the teachings of Buddha.
Manoukian has since become a Buddhist nun known as Ani Pema Drolma and resides Ari Bhod in Tehachapi, a retreat in California.
Other works by this artist
