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100

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100

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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:

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.

Artist:

Krikor Momdjian

Title:

Open Diary, 1996

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Krikor Momdjian
Title: Open Diary, 1996
Location: Artist's Collection

Krikor Momdjian: "Like an open book, we see on one side a photo-document in which we witness how in a barbaric way Armenians were slaughtered in 1915. I did not want to paint the image but used it as it is - an horrible evidence. When I saw this picture for the first time as a little boy, I was choked that human beings are capable of such acts. History seems repeating itself as we think about what is happening now in the middle east, not far from Anatolia, where the massacres of Christian Armenians and deportations occurred. But I believe we can change this, for the sake of future generations, by education and information in healthy thinking. showing empathy for other people and cultures to create a better world."

Artist:

Ervand Kochar

Title:

Erebuni - Yerevan, 1968

Location:

Ervand Kochar Museum, Yerevan

Artist: Ervand Kochar
Title: Erebuni - Yerevan, 1968
Location: Ervand Kochar Museum, Yerevan

By portraying the Guardian Angel on one pane of the spatial painting, holding a book over her head at the same height as the heavenly luminaries, Kochar emphasises the importance attached by the Armenian people to writing and literature, culture and science, hinting that the secret of our eternal existence lies in this kind of worship.

Kochar seems to have derived the image of the Angel from the old Armenian miniatures, maintaining even the colour traditions of our miniaturists.

Artist:

Haroutiun Galentz

Title:

They Killed the Mother, 1960-s

Location:

Galentz Museum, Yerevan

Artist: Haroutiun Galentz
Title: They Killed the Mother, 1960-s
Location: Galentz Museum, Yerevan

Armen Yesayants (PhD in Art History): "In this work we see the identity of the graceless Turk in toxic yellowish-green color and in the redness of the blood a child who was the only one left. Kaneltz considered that the Genocide should not be visualized or presented. As a result, instead of big creations only small graphical works are preserved."

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SHARED ARTS section.
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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian