Limited Edition Etching of Vahe Oshagan Created by British Artist

CLEVELAND, OH-A limited edition, numbered etching of Vahe Oshagan was created recently by the British artist Peter Edwards. Vahe Oshagan, who died on June 30, 2000 at the age of 78, was the Armenian Diaspora's most well-known critic, political activist, renegade poet, prolific novelist, and professor of literature.

Obituaries in the Guardian, New York Times, and other international newspapers portrayed him as the voice of the Armenian Diaspora and a cultural icon. Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Oshagan grew up in Egypt, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. He received a doctorate in comparative literature from the Sorbonne in 1951 and taught philosophy, psychology, and literature at numerous institutions, including the American University of Beirut.

Uprooted by the civil war in Lebanon, he moved to Philadelphia where he taught literature, history, and culture at the University of Philadelphia. As a poet, Oshagan alarmed literary circles. Eight volumes of his work were published. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and a literary columnist for the Asbarez daily. His 1980 epic, "Ahazank" (Alert) portrayed the American cityscape, while other Armenian poets remained fixated on an idyllic past. Oshagan also lectured in Australia, Berkeley, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Nagorno Karabagh. He served as editor of the literary journal Raft, and was a recipient of the St. Mesrob Mashtots Medal from the Armenian Church.

The creator of the etching is a specialist in poets and novelists, and his work hangs in the residence of the British Prime Minister, the British National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and other galleries in England, Wales, Scotland, and Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

Edwards is one of the few portraitists to have had a one man show at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Poets who have sat for Edwards include the recent Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, as well as Sir William Asscher, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, Willy Russell, and Sir Bobby Charlton.

The etching is impressed into a thick 11 ¼ x 15 ½ paper, and the actual size is 6 ¼ x 7 ¾. Only fifty copes of the signed etching were created, and it is available for $130 including shipping. Make checks payable to Raft, Dr. John A.C. Greppin, Program in Linguistics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115.

For additional information, call Dr. Greppin at (216) 687-3967 or (216) 932-6673.