International Creative Metal, Inc. Company History

Sofia, Bulgaria 1953	Creative Metal Sculpture Shop, NY 1973	Sofia, Bulgaria 1953

Article from The Gulf News TABLOID

Nov 15, 1988

The twelve year old boy, in the sheep-skin jacket almost as big as it was, stood by the furnace in the blacksmith‘s shop fighting back the tears. What‘s the matter with you?, the master smithy asked. I don‘t want to be a blacksmith. I want a scholarship to art school and I want to be an artist. You want to be an artist? Well draw something for me, a flower. The boy drew a rose, and within five minutes the master had taken a piece of metal and created a perfect rose. You think the only people who are artists are those who can draw?, the master said.

Setrak Agonian, became a blacksmith‘s apprentice, but never again thought that art was the prerogative of the intellectual. Visitors to Abu Dhabi‘s impressive Cultural Foundation can see a classic example of Setrak‘s work, the massive eight-sided star set in into the National Library courtyard. Even the fence surrounding the courtyard is designed to add another perspective to the sculpture.

Setrak Agonian looks more like a prize fighter than an artist, and indeed has boxed at light heavyweight. An Armenian, he was born in Bulgaria during the World War II, the war which killed his father. Like most children of that era, he knew great hardships. His artistic talent was evident from a very early age, and encouraged by his mother, at 12 he won a scholarship to art school.

However there was no way he could take up his scholarship, he had to earn his bread. He was a big strong boy, so he was apprenticed to the blacksmith in Sofia. He grew to love working with the quiet master, and was encouraged to create artistic work. When he was 18, Setrak and his mother emigrated to the USA. He had six dollars in his pocket and he could speak no English. His life in America is the emigrant‘s dream of the poor boy making good.

He went to work as a machinist in a metal factory. A hard and boring job. In the factory were two old men who produced special parts by hand. When they retired, the company decided to put the special work out to tender. Setrak found out what the tenders quoted, and told the manager he knew someone who could produce them cheaper. He went out and bought a bending machine, and in their one room apartment, made the special parts.

In three years he had saved enough to open his own metal work-shop, Creative Metal Inc. It was so small, once I had fitted in out there was hardly room to move. I went to auction to bid for an anvil, it was an old big anvil, today a collector‘s piece. I remember to bid for this anvil so fiercely that the other two bidders dropped out at two hundred dollars. Afterward they said that the look on my face frightened them, they felt if they bought it I would kill them. A huge big laugh as he says, Maybe I would have

All the other boys my age were dating and going out to parties, but I just didn‘t have the time. Any spare time I had was spent in the gymnasium, I like to box and later to wrestle, and I did a lot of coaching. Today Setrak is the president of the Metropolitan Wrestling Association and a member of the international board. He was with the American team in Munich and Seoul.

Sculptors came to know his work-shop and to use his skills, but he never thought of creating his own works. It was when his mother was very ill, and a local priest from the Armenian church was so good to her, that as a thank you, Setrak made a special piece for the church. That work created such interest that commissions followed.

The commissions became more and more important top architects were coming to him. And though one of them, TAC, possibly the most prestigious in the USA, he was asked to design the piece for the courtyard of the National Library, and the special fences and gates that would be part of the overall design.

The eight-sided star evolved I think because it had something of all the aspects of country. The Islamic star, the sphere it encloses is the world and the other factor is the mystery of the pyramid. From every angle you can see this factors. And which ever direction the sun shines, the shadows continue the theme.

by Joan Van Der Merwe