Public Figures

Paul Guiragossian

Born in 1926 in Jerusalem, Paul Guiragossian was a child who had remarkable ease in drawing his friends and the people around him. He thought everybody was capable of doing the same thing. He didn’t realize until much later that he was one of the select few, whom providence had graced with this exceptional gift.

Until the age of seven Paul and his younger brother grew up in boarding schools because it was the only way their mother as a single parent was able to work for these establishments and have her 2 sons get an education. After moving back with his mother, Paul had to work in the summers to support his family but even then his passion for painting was stronger than him.

His mother would destroy and throw his works and forbid him from painting, because she use to say, art won’t feed your family, but after everyone went to bed, Paul would bring out his hidden materials and with a dim oil lamp light continue painting.

In 1942 Paul attended Studio Yarkon in Jerusalem to start improving his passion of painting. Later on he moved and settled in Lebanon and in 1953 married Juliette Hindian a young painter who first was his student. Together they had 5 children Sylva, Emmanuel, Araxie, Jean-Paul and Manuella.

In 1956, Paul won the first prize of the Italian Biennial, which landed him a scholarship to study at the Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze (The Academy of Fine Arts of Florence).

In 1961-2, with another scholarship from the French Government Paul spent a year studying and painting in Paris after which he returned to reside in Lebanon.
In 1989 to 1991 Paul lived in Paris with his family, and painted his largest masterpieces and in 1992 had a solo art show at the IMA (Institut du Monde Arab).

Paul passed away in 1993 on the 20th of November in Beirut, after finalizing a magnificiant oil painting which he revealed to his family to be his best work yet.