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100

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100

arts

mission

The Armenian Genocide has left an irreversible trace in our history and in our spirits and the reflection of grief, yearning, hope is woven in chain in the Armenian fine arts. When human languages is powerless to express what happened in 1915, the language of art does have the power to do so. Different generations of Armenian famous artists have continuously addressed the great iniquity and the artworks dedicated to the Armenian Genocide have always had their unique places in their art. Armenian artists greatly contributed to the global acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide thought their art. Many of these works have been exhibited to public but even more of them are unknown till today.

100 years

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Acts and measures undertaken to destroy the culture of a nation or an ethnic group is called "cultural genocide". Many facts prove that simultaneous with the massacres and deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the government of the Young Turks masterminded and implemented systematic destruction of the material testimonies of the Armenian civilization.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

A genocide is the organized extermination of a nation aiming to put an end to their collective existence. The extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the surrounding regions during 1915-1923 is called the Armenian Genocide. Those massacres were masterminded and perpetrated by the government of Young Turks and were later finalized by the Kemalist government.

100 arts

The anguish of the Armenian Genocide, which is being reborn with every Armenian, has its own reflection in the Armenian fine arts. Many Armenian well known artists have created artworks both in Armenia and in Diaspora that are the speaking witness of the Armenian great pain, loss and yearning. These artworks are also ode to the Armenian viable genes, will power of giving birth, living and creation. Genocide is the type of crime that does have any expiration date. Human speech is sometimes powerless in expressing those things that are possible to express only through art. These 100 artworks will continuously tell the world about the unhealed wound of the Armenian, millions of innocent victims, demolished heartlands, bowed churches, lost homeland and infinite belief. The power of art is undeniable and artworks are eternal.

Artist:

Martiros Sarian

Title:

The Year of 1915 of Armenian People, 1965

Location:

Sarian Family Collection

Artist: Martiros Sarian
Title: The Year of 1915 of Armenian People, 1965
Location: Sarian Family Collection

This sketch is the only M.Sarian’s work directly depicting the subject of Armenian Genoside in Western Armenia. Apparently the artist has drawn an Armenian woman, mentioned by him in the book of his memoirs ‘From my life’. She managed to escape the Turkish massacre and had settled by the walls of St.Hripsime church. This woman was losing her black-eyed sons one after another making shrouds for them out of her dresses using her own her for sewing.

Artist:

Marie Adamian

Title:

Black and White, 2012

Location:

Private Collection

Artist: Marie Adamian
Title: Black and White, 2012
Location: Private Collection

Marie Adamian: "The tree of life, the fruit of which gives eternal life, according to the Bible, is depicted in the symbolic contrast. The “Black and White” title of the artwork symbolizes the void, pressure, depression of the black color on the one hand and the innocence, the idea of unity and wholeness of the white on the other hand, which is typical to the tragic centennial history of the Armenian nation."

Artist:

Valentin Podpomogov

Title:

Requiem, 1981

Location:

Modern Art Museum of Yerevan

Artist: Valentin Podpomogov
Title: Requiem, 1981
Location: Modern Art Museum of Yerevan

Valentin Podpomogov, who was Armenian from his mother’s side, was deeply concerned about the Armenian Genocide in 1915. As an expression of pain and anguish he created series of canvases dedicated to the Genocide, the most actual one of which is this work: Completely demolished formerly inhabited soil, where you can see the church miraculously still standing far away.
The huge bell ripped off the church and the dust still at unease after the devastation makes us feel through the 1915 all over again. But as a shine of hope and salvation, one can see the God’s light cracked from the black sky.

Artist:

Edward Arzrunian

Title:

The Refugees in Etjmiatsin, 1968

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Edward Arzrunian
Title: The Refugees in Etjmiatsin, 1968
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

In Soviet Armenia there was a silence about the Armenian Genocide. The authorities of USSR had an agreement with Turkey of not mentioning the Armenian Genocide in Armenia. It was prohibited for the Armenian artists to cover the theme of Genocide in their canvases till the 60-ies. And only in 1965 when the Genocide Memorial monument was built in the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, the ban wall seemed to have vanished. Armenian artists started to create works depicting the historic truth.

This work of Eduard Arzunian is one of those historic facts showing how the Armenian mother, who has escaped from exile, starvation, calamity of death, together with her children and other orphaned children would gather at the church begging for God’s shelter.

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SHARED ARTS section.
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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian