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100

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100

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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:

Leon Tutundjian

Title:

Red Mask, 1930

Location:

Private Collection

Artist: Leon Tutundjian
Title: Red Mask, 1930
Location: Private Collection

Shahen Khachatryan (Аrt critic): "The direction of Surrealism seemed to be the fertile soil of the polarized soul of the artist who survived the Genocide. And whatever could be the plot of imagination, was a real image, unforgotten pain for Tutundjian. The intertwining of the symbolism and realism filled his art with supreme sensitivity and strict independence of the expressive language. The arm ripped off, the cracked brain, the hanging rope, the horrified tree reminding a human face in Tutundjian’s canvases reveal the nightmare he survived."

Artist:

Samvel Khachatryan

Title:

On the Foreign Deserted Roads, 2015

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Samvel Khachatryan
Title: On the Foreign Deserted Roads, 2015
Location: Artist's Collection

By naming the painting "On the foreign deserted roads" the artists tried to present the outcast state of the nation. These people were the ones who, sensing the upcoming disaster, made a decision to leave their homes and take the sojourn road. And these cruel feelings are reflected on their faces, as all the people in the painting don’t have a mouth and are headed towards the unknown on the foreign deserted roads.

Artist:

Simon Galstyan

Title:

The Nation Will Sign, 1960

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Simon Galstyan
Title: The Nation Will Sign, 1960
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

As many Armenian artist, Simon Galstyan depicted Komitas Archimandrite as a symbol of perpetuation of the nation, who had experienced the Genocide. The barbarically demolished room and the atrocities still carried out by the Turkish officers go to the background. Seeing the suffered glance of Komitas dressed all in white and at the same time the unsurrendered posture…

And the nation never stopped singing.

Artist:

Vardges Sureniants

Title:

Desecrated Shrine, 1895

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Vardges Sureniants
Title: Desecrated Shrine, 1895
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Vardges Sureniants was deeply concerned with the cruel destiny of the Armenian nation. He depicted the cruel atrocities by the Turks, that had been taking place long before the Armenian Genocide in 1915, looks like Sureniants documented the bitter fragments of the Armenian history in the "Homeless", "The Abandoned", "Massacre of Virgin", "The Monastery of ST Hripsime" and other canvases such as the "Desecrated Shrine" painting.

Slaughter and pillage, destruction of parchment manuscripts, massacre of the virgins and Armenian priests inside the church. But despite these scenes, Sureniants symbolizes hope and faith through the rising cross stones as symbols of strong faith and salvation of the Armenian nation.

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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian