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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:

Annette Gurdjian

Title:

Starving Armenian, 1995-s

Location:

Private Collection

Artist: Annette Gurdjian
Title: Starving Armenian, 1995-s
Location: Private Collection

Annette Gurdjian: "The term "Starved" was a common phrase used at dinner table in the United States as word of the plight of the Armenians reached the U.S Genocide survivors told of Arabs helping them in the desert in small and meaningful ways. This painting depicts a weak survivor receiving a piece of bread from an Arab."

Artist:

Jansem (Hovhannes Semerdjian)

Title:

Funeral of My Grandfather, 1951

Location:

Modern Art Museum of Yerevan

Artist: Jansem (Hovhannes Semerdjian)
Title: Funeral of My Grandfather, 1951
Location: Modern Art Museum of Yerevan

Shahen Khachatryan (Art critic): "The sensitive lines of Jansem are flowing in the canvases like blood vessels and harmonizing the subtle, pale color palette, they create hyperrealistic, visual and music atmosphere. Jansem practices this principle of building the image. Exactly 50 years after the Genocide inspired "Funeral of my grandfather" painting, the master creates the "Genocide" series revealing the curtain of the history truth.

Artist:

Haroutiun Gakentz

Title:

The Portrait of a Writer Vivan Tjitejian, 1957

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Haroutiun Gakentz
Title: The Portrait of a Writer Vivan Tjitejian, 1957
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Armen Yesayants (PhD in Art History): "The anguish of the entire nation is centered in the art of Haurtyun Kalentz. In the artistic heritage of Kalents the theme of Genocide was depicted both directly and indirectly: Kalentz said: There in the foreign country, Armenian faces seem to be a part of the motherland. For me the portrait is also landscape and much more than that. The portraits are my motherland."

Artist:

Sarkis Khachaturian

Title:

Exiles, 1915

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Sarkis Khachaturian
Title: Exiles, 1915
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Sargis Khachatryan has created series of painting in the theme of the Armenian exiles. This painting belongs to those series as well. Suffered and worried faces, movement, that look as if frozen, silence and question mark is stamped on their face that is transmitted through the painting. What will be the fate of the Armenian nation.

In 1924 in Vienna that was a catalog published with the artists works where he was described as "The singer of the Armenian sorrow".

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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian