P. 54.
History of the Civilization
and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de
Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News
WHAT IS AN ARMENIAN ART?
By Maximillien de Lafayette
Photo:
Painting by Anatoli Avetian.
To fully understand Armenian contemporary painting in all its
styles and genres from surrealism to cubism and from neo-classicism to
abstract, one must learn about the adjacent and parallel
national/ethnic Armenian arts that gave birth to the art of painting. Armenian
painting is the noble product and cause-effect of Armenian national arts that
grew years before Armenian modern painting came to life. Without learning
about the art of manuscripts, the early miniatures and portraiture of
precedent Armenian painters, the architecture of Armenian churches and
cathedrals, the symbol of light in the life and socio-philosophical concept of
Armenian Christianity (Orthodoxy, Syriac, Assyrian, Aramaic and Catholicism
alike), without understanding the symbols of the Katchkars, without
comprehending the Genocide effect on the Armenian people, without studying the
Diaspora, without sailing through the exile era of Armenian people, poets,
artists, scientists, philosophers and commoners, without appreciating the
ethnic art of Armenian rugs and carpets weaving, without parading before the
Armenian handwork and lace making art, one would not fully understand
contemporary Armenian art. Yes, of course, we will still enjoy the beauty of
forms, shapes, colors, compositions, harmony, equilibrium, rebellious and free
movements of the brushes, nostalgic strokes of romantic and almost all the
time defying Armenian artists that create all the beauty, intensity and
supremacy of Armenian contemporary art. But, appreciating Armenian art without
understanding it is just like if we were looking at a magnificent edifice from
the antiquities without being able to read the inscriptions on the tablets, on
the columns, on the obelisks that explain all what we are looking at. Would
you be satisfied to look at a painting, enjoying its beauty and the talent of
its master without knowing how, why and when it came to life? Would you feel
satisfied if you learn half of the story…appreciating a painting without
knowing what the painter meant or expressed on his canvas? It is the same
thing when it comes to the Armenian art of the 19th and 20th
centuries. Take my word for granted. I will try to shed some lights on the
mysteries and secrets of the Armenian modern/contemporary painting. After all,
half of the beauty of a painting is in its secret.
You do not need
to
know a thing about Andrew Jackson, the Panama Canal construction, The Mexican
American war, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, the St. Patrick Cathedral
in New York or the Bay of the Pigs to understand a Jackson Pollack , Stella
or Rothko painting.
Photo:
Painting by Arthur Sarkissian.
You do not need to know what Napoleon Bonaparte
said to Josephine, or Charles de Gaulle promised the Algerians or what a filet
mignon is to enjoy, like or dislike a Matisse, Leger, Mondrian or even Picasso
painting. It is NOT the same case with Armenian painting. I repeat once again,
to fully appreciate and understand a painting made by an Armenian artist in
the 19th and the 20th centuries,
you MUST learn –even a little- about Armenian history, the Armenian Genocide,
Armenian Christianity, the Armenian Diaspora, Mount Ararat and other subjects.
What is an Armenian art? Is there an identifiable pure Armenian
art? Is the painting of Armenian artists in the 19th and 20th
centuries a pure Armenian art with an ethnic identity or an international art
expression ? Do Armenian artists paint like their counterparts around the
world and share similar techniques, explore identical themes, use familiar
media, convey parallel messages or do they confine themselves to their
national ideology, regional concerns, internal affairs and their own way of
life, using Armenian style or Armenian genre of choosing certain colors,
projecting characteristic lines and envisioning Armenian compositions adopted
from
their
traditional architecture and religious fervor?? Because a considerable number
of art critics strongly believe that Armenian art came out of necessity, that
Armenian art was the inevitable product, cause-effect of an Armenian tragedy
known to the world as the Armenian Genocide?! Such questions are asked to
allow us to explore and comprehend the identity, limitations, infinity,
dimensions and characteristics of the art of Armenian painters inside and
outside Armenia. It is my strong belief that Armenian artists from the
beginning of the 19th century rivaled their colleagues and other
artists of the world at all level.
P. 55.
History of the Civilization
and Arts of Armenia from the Bronze Age to Present. By Maximillien de
Lafayette. The Globe Weekly News
Photo:
Painting by Baghdasarian Arkaki.
In many
instances, the Armenian artists did paint like Armenian individuals, like
Armenian priests, like Armenian sheltered and sorrowful souls, like Armenian
rivers humming nostalgic and bleeding songs, like Armenian prairies and proud
Armenian mounts defying eternity and divine majesty in their beauty, serenity
and historical formidable struggles and accomplishments. No doubt when you
look at a Martiros Saryan’s (The loving patriarch of the Armenian artists,
more on him later) painting, you see Armenia in his colors, in his themes, in
his painful and
defying strokes. Armenia is all over his canvases whether he is painting Mount
Ararat, Lac Sevan, sad and obscure Armenian villages, Armenian faces in
markets, souks, bazaars, on mastabahs and narrow streets of Istanbul and
Ankara, or whether he is not addressing any Armenian theme on the linens.
The man breathes, and lives his beloved Armenia twenty four
hour a day. And so did the 99% of the Armenian artists during and after the
Turkish domination, the massacres, the genocide, the famine, the Armenian
struggles and the exile of millions of them to Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Greece,
Cyprus, Malta and so many other countries. Then, is there an authentic,
purely Armenian art. The answer is affirmative.
Yes,
there is an Armenian art but, with an universal appeal and an artistic
aesthetical mastery of a world class quality. But, how about the Armenian
artists who where born to wealthy Armenian families in Europe and in the
United States, In Venezuela, Santos in Brazil or Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez
in France? Do they feel the same way ? Do they express their sensations and
feelings on canvases the same way a hungry Armenian artist in the empty
streets of Konia, Adana, Izmir, Yerevan during the killings of Armenians?
Honest critics escape those questions. They don’t like to address the issue,
simply because the answers are not so easy. The majority of Armenian art
history teachers in American universities adopted one singular set of very
complicated and perplex answers and explanations to those questions and
answers. Prominent
American art historians authorities on the subject believe that those
questions can be answered by historical and comparative analysis.
When I
look at a Sarayan, Guiragossian, Assadoor or Carzou paintings, I do not see
Armenian blood, Armenian churches decimated by Turkish regiments, I do not see
an Armenian Genocide. Simply, I see a painting of a superior art quality,
vibrant or intelligent colors, equilibrium or rebellious strokes movements; a
painting which could have been done by any foreign artist who has never heard
of the Armenian tragedy or learned one single thing about the Armenian
heritage. True! But, if you do not see it, you feel it. And that is the
greatness of the Armenian artists. You just feel it. You are not supposed to
see art as an object resting on a table, like a vase or a bowl of fruits. You
are not supposed to look at a piece of art with uninformed and un-sensitive
eyes. You do not look at art to discover it. Simply, you do not look at art,
you just feel it. Armenian art is not stagnant. It is a take and a give and
vice-versa.
Armenian art as an unchangeable witness of a bloody genocide and tragic facts,
remains independent and constantly in state of metamorphosis. To feel,
understand and fully absorb an Armenian art, one must be familiar with the
elements that constitute its very fabric, the message behind the painting, the
meaning of lights in an Armenian painting, the concept and symbols of the
Katchkars, the Diaspora essence and soul, and most
definitely the national religious fervor. I
will address the issue very candidly all along this essay. Together, we will
select some paintings and artists that are the best representatives of an
Armenian platform, an ideological plateau, a philosophical front and
consequently, we let the genre of the chosen artists, their colors and design
of their canvases tell us the whole story.
An
honest and truthful story that poses all the questions and gives all the
answers.
When I
look at a Baal statue, easily I can identify its ethnicity, where this statue
came from and who made it. It would be very easy to identify its origin from
its style whether it was made by a Hittite artist, a Sumerian artist, an
Assyrian artist, or a Phoenician artist. The same applies when we admire the
beauty of an obelisk. It becomes evident that this monument is Egyptian,
because it has the Egyptian motif and style. So what constitutes an Armenian
art? What are the characteristics? The motif? The Genre? The style? The
particularities? Those questions become more difficult to answer, once we
visit in time the various eras and epochs of Armenian history which began with
the bronze age. Armenia
and art are twins. They were born together in the same cradle. The cradle of
the civilization at the dawn of the human race. At the very dawn and sunset of
the bronze age, in caves and fortresses, on trees branches and savaged hills
filled with skulls and bones, at the doors of magnificent citadels, at the
gates of invincible fortresses and at the feet of mountains that witness the
might of unmerciful formidable armies. From the very beginning of
the
known and unknown, recorded and un-recorded history of mankind, Armenia was
there standing tall with any form of an art expression by a human being with
clay, stone, bronze, iron, wood, ceramics, poetry, titles, a piece of rug,
carpet, a manuscript, a lace or even bones. Armenia explored it art, invented
art, co-created art, lived and almost died without art during the massacres of
world war one.
Continues NEXT