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100

years

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:

Ararat Sarkissian

Title:

Earth (Image VIII), 2003

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Ararat Sarkissian
Title: Earth (Image VIII), 2003
Location: Artist's Collection

In Sarkissian’s landscapes, nature, manifesting itself in the mysterious appearance of runes, elicits in the spectator an irrepressible desire to decipher the imagery. What is presented to us is not a puzzle but rather a miracle, at which we gaze in a trance-like state, losing ourselves in the experience and dissolving our ego.

Artist:

Yurik Harutyunyan

Title:

Exile, 2000

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Yurik Harutyunyan
Title: Exile, 2000
Location: Artist's Collection

The artist deciphers the Armenian exile through abstract images. On the one hand the black dots that symbolize the cross that the Armenian nation was carrying on their shoulders going through infernal tortures, on the other hand the sparkling light that carries the symbol of hope, faith towards the salvation. The country is not in the claws of hell, paradise is its final destination.

Artist:

Annette Gurdjian

Title:

Figure Sobbing, 1995-s

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Annette Gurdjian
Title: Figure Sobbing, 1995-s
Location: Artist's Collection

Annette Gurdjian: "The piece is painted over photographs of my father's family planting a tree at their first home in the United States after arriving from Turkey. The painting symbolizes the pain of leaving one's ancestral home juxtaposed with the symbol of setting roots in a new and different land."

Artist:

Eduard Isabekyan

Title:

Western Armenia, 1940

Location:

Artist's Family Collection

Artist: Eduard Isabekyan
Title: Western Armenia, 1940
Location: Artist's Family Collection

Eduard Isabekyan: "Memory is a very important thing. There is no other nation in the world that needs memory more than the Armenian nation. Because there is no other nation in the world that has left its property, its soil, 99% of everything owned to others. If Igdirtsis forget Igdir, Alashkertsis - Alashker, Vanetsis forget Van, Bayazettsis - Bayazets and etc If they forget that the entire nation never forgot where they are from. The Armenian needs our memory, for him to be able to own whatever his has lost, so as always to remember that he has to bring back whatever he has lost."

share your arts

Here, you can upload your artwork dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. The uploaded artwork will be published in the
SHARED ARTS section.
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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian