Искусство Армении. Черты историко-художественного развития

This trend in painting of the 1950s certainly owed a great deal to Martiros Saryan, whose creative work inspired many Armenian artists. Among them was Minas Avetisyan, who in his own, quite distinct way drew on this work of his great contemporary. Avetisyan’s creative ca ‐ reer was short — from 1960 to 1975, but in those years he made a valuable contribution. His imagery is unique throughout — in his fine drawings, murals and, above all, his paintings which reveal his great gift as a colourist, through which he can convey subtle moods and a wide range of emotion. Portraits, still lifes and scenes by Avetisyan are full of mysterious charm, and, unlike Saryan’s, though they are static they betray dramatic tension. As for his landscapes, especially those semi ‐ fantastic, yet somehow real views of his native village, they are a trend of their own within the Armenian landscape school. In this period Armenian artists showed great interest in the life of contemporary Armenia seen against the background of her stormy past. The tragic events of 1915, the civil and world wars, the joys and worries of the post ‐ war years were waiting for an artist to record, to be in ‐ terpreted through the prism of the new life. Muradyan was a painter who saw his work in this light. The painter and illustrator Grigor Khandjan followed a similar line. His book illustrations and his latest major work — a tapestry of the battle of Vardan Mamikonyan — Vardanank (1981) were major events in the cultural life of Armenia. The fifties saw a renewed interest in a more lyrical approach, the artist’s inner world and his creative personality gradually coming to the fore. As the result, styles became more individ ‐ ual. The criteria by which contemporary art was judged also changed rapidly. This tendency, apart from the above factors, was also determined by certain circumstances which urged both the artists and the public to break through the limits of traditional views on art. Towards the end of the 1950s Armenian artists “discovered” two interesting Armenian painters living in Tbilisi: Alexander Bajbeuk ‐ Melikian and Gevork Grigoryan (Giotto), whose work they began to study with care. At the same time, the complete works of Hakop Gurdjan, the sculptor, and, a little later, the painter Georges Yakulov were brought over from Paris and exhibited in Yerevan. The rich inner world and skill of these masters appealed to the younger Armenian artists so greatly that much of their oeuvre in the next two decades was strongly in ‐ fluenced by them. Another new name appeared on the scene from within Armenia and imme ‐ diately attracted general attention — Ervand Kochar, a sculptor, painter and graphic artist. His never ‐ ceasing creative pursuits, his bold experiments resulted in a work that both artists and the general public took to right away. Among the many Armenians who were returning from all over the world were several re ‐ markable artists: the sculptor Agaronyan and the painters H. Galentz, P. Konturadjan, A. Garibyan and A. Galentz. Harutyun Galentz was the most interesting of them for he was a truly lyrical artist and a master of colour. The fine artistry of his work left a deep imprint on Ar ‐ menian taste and increased the public’s and the artists’ knowledge and understanding of mod ‐ ern Western European art. Young painters and sculptors learnt from their predecessors and elder contemporaries whom they used as a touchstone for their own skill and as a starting point from which to develop their own creative personalities. In this way a continuing of tradi ‐ tion was maintained, and as the result, many new and highly original artists have appeared, as, for example, the painters R. Elibekyan and M. Petrosyan, and the sculptors L. Tokmadjan and A. Shiraz. An interesting new trend in the Armenian painting of that time was associated with the name of Hakop Hakopyan, a landscape and still ‐ life painter. His numerous works brought a new, unconventional image of Armenia, which he saw not as a picturesque and ever sunlit land, but as a series of austere and intensely dramatic views.