Douvalian, Yerant Everyone should stop what they are doing and run to the first exhibit of this young man. At twenty-four years, he is a master craftsman. Professional painters two or three times his age are not as expert…Each painting is a conquest that the spectator is invited to think about…it is necessary to look at each painting for a long time to see its charm and seduction..”
- Alain Bosquet
Yerant was born in Moscow in 1963. His Armenian father was a well known jazz singer and musician and his Russian mother, a talented student. Yerant’s maternal grandmother and great grandmother were both pianists and his maternal grandfather, a very prominent engineer who designed trains and managed a train company between Siberia and Manchuria. With the help of the French government, the Douvalians emigrated to France in 1968, settling in a Parisian suburb where they raised their only son. At the age of seventeen, Yerant left home to join the French Army. During his military service, He began drawing to pass the time. He also developed an interest in the piano. Not realizing that music and art would be his future, Yerant gave little serious thought to these interests.
Divorced from Yerant’s father, Alla moved to Paris in 1982 and married Charles Kaufman. They encouraged Yerant to study art and within a few months, he was accepted at the prestigious, Academie Julien Met de Penningen – Ecole Superior A Graphique. He was one of the one hundred graphic design students and was immediately recognized by his professors as being in the top 90% of his class in all areas of study. After three years at the ESAG, Yerant began to paint. Rejecting the commercial side of graphic design, he began to paint his own mechanical creations, probably inspired by memories of his grandparents. Soon, Yerant realized that his professional future was as a painter and that while commercial graphic design would play a part in his work, it was not the career he would pursue. He moved to the South of France and began painting.
Intrigued since childhood by mechanical objects, his earliest works were of wheels, cylinders, pistons and locomotive emblems. He soon caught the attention of Katia Granoff, who offered to buy his paintings for her galleries in Paris, Nice and Deauville. Further recognition came when famed art critic, Alain Bosquet saw one of Yerant’s paintings at a friend’s house. He contacted Yerant and suggested that they find a gallery to promote him. At Bosquet’s invitation, Jacques Carpentier viewed the paintings and offered Yerant his first show in November, 1987. A few months later, Yerant had his first museum show at the Musee Francais du Chemin de Fer in Mulhouse. These shows were followed by an exhibition in Geneva and another in Moscow in addition to a group exhibition at the Hermitage. A painting donated by Yerant to the Armenian Auction to aid earthquake victims was purchased by singer, Charles Aznavour.
In July, 1988, Jacques Carpentier met with Carol Curci of Sabbatique Art in Paris, to discuss the sale of paintings by Yerant in the United States. Within a few months, six paintings were placed in private collections. Together, Galerie Carpentier and Sabbatique Ltd. published Yerant’s first lithograph, The Bracelet, and promotion began for his American debut at Art Expo - New York in 1990.
After the sudden death of Carpentier in December, 1989, the Carpentier family and Curci decided to continue the project. Response to Yerant’s paintings was extraordinary. Pieces were placed in private collections, corporate collections and sold to galleries for resale. And so, a young man’s career was underway! Yerant's most recent work can be seen in the set designs of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded.
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Quick Facts
Born:
Moscow Russia
Type(s):
Artist
Illustrator
Concept Artist
Style:
Categories Most Known For:
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