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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:

Jansem (Hovhannes Semerdjian)

Title:

Massacre Bleu, 1999

Location:

Armenian Genocide Museum - Institute, Yerevan

Artist: Jansem (Hovhannes Semerdjian)
Title: Massacre Bleu, 1999
Location: Armenian Genocide Museum - Institute, Yerevan

The French reviewer Q. Blan wrote about Zhansem: "The lost souls found their shelter with the poet-artist. He passed to the canvas what the world couldn’t see. Zhansem’s paintings are the memory of the entire Armenian nation."

Artist:

Mkrtich Sedrakyan

Title:

Year 1915, 1960

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Mkrtich Sedrakyan
Title: Year 1915, 1960
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

The third stage of the planned extermination of the Armenian nation by Ottoman empire is expressed in one composition in Mkrtich Sedrakian’s "Year 1915" canvas. The first stage was enrollment of the Armenian men to Ottoman army, then disarmament and slaughter by the Turkish military associates. The second stage was the extermination of the Armenian intelligentsia and the third stage was the massacre of the women, children, elderly people by deporting them to the Syrian desert.

In the 60-ies Soviet Armenia the Armenian artists were prohibited to depict on theme of the Armenian Genocide. And only, in 1965, when the Genocide monuments was built in Tsitsernakaberd the ban barrier disappeared.

Artist:

Grigor Khandjyan

Title:

Yeghern (Illustration to Paruyr Sevak's), 1963-1965

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Grigor Khandjyan
Title: Yeghern (Illustration to Paruyr Sevak's), 1963-1965
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Shahen khachatryan (Аrt critic): "Series of Grigor Khanjyan book illustrations are dedicated to the Armenian tragedy. The unique composition of the paintings, linear, impactful sounds enhance the bitter sufferings. In Paruyr Sevak’s “Unsilenceable Belfry” poem Grigor Khanjyan always depicted the genius musician Komitas as an high spirited shepherd with the nation. But when the extermination of Armenian occurs the light extinguishes and the darkness prevails…"

Artist:

Sarkis Khachaturian

Title:

Armenian Orphans in the Desert, 1920

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Sarkis Khachaturian
Title: Armenian Orphans in the Desert, 1920
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Faith and language have been an inseparable parts of the Armenian nation. On the exile road, often at the expense of their own lives, the Armenian nation was trying to preserve their handmade records as a central pillar of the nation's survival. This canvas of Sargis Khachatryan is filled with optimistic symbols, that even the hungry and exhausted Armenian children on the exile road Der-Zor deserts still continued to learn the alphabet by writing it on sand.

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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian