home

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:

Hovhannes Zardarian

Title:

Armenians Exiled Towards Ararat, 1975

Location:

Artist's Family Collection

Artist: Hovhannes Zardarian
Title: Armenians Exiled Towards Ararat, 1975
Location: Artist's Family Collection

Hovhannes Zardayan was born in 1918 in kars (Western Armenia). During the Genocide, the Zardaryans takes the exile path as well and the emotions connected to the lost motherland was reflected in the "The Exile of the Armenians to Ararat" canvas. Hovhannes Zardaryan was an artists of free soul. He used to say "Everybody has his own dream. The dream begins with the birth and something makes the human say something. The most important thing is get the word heard. It’s a big happiness when you are able to express your feeling on a canvas."

Artist:

Shahen Aslanyan

Title:

Der-Zor, 2010

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Shahen Aslanyan
Title: Der-Zor, 2010
Location: Artist's Collection

Shahen Aslanyan created this painting under the impression of real and sensitive survivals. The artist, visiting Der-Zor, where in 1915 the Ottoman Empire implemented the plan of extermination of the Armenian, felt all over again everything that had happened one century ago. Looking at the horizon of the crimson sunset, the artist “saw” the silhouette of the exhausted Armenian women with her starved children. This was a real vision, that got eternally depicted on the canvas of Shahen Aslanyan.

Artist:

Vardges Sureniants

Title:

Desecrated Shrine, 1895

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Vardges Sureniants
Title: Desecrated Shrine, 1895
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Vardges Sureniants was deeply concerned with the cruel destiny of the Armenian nation. He depicted the cruel atrocities by the Turks, that had been taking place long before the Armenian Genocide in 1915, looks like Sureniants documented the bitter fragments of the Armenian history in the "Homeless", "The Abandoned", "Massacre of Virgin", "The Monastery of ST Hripsime" and other canvases such as the "Desecrated Shrine" painting.

Slaughter and pillage, destruction of parchment manuscripts, massacre of the virgins and Armenian priests inside the church. But despite these scenes, Sureniants symbolizes hope and faith through the rising cross stones as symbols of strong faith and salvation of the Armenian nation.

Artist:

Sahak Poghosyan

Title:

Silecne of My Grandmother's Eyes, 2015

Location:

Artist's Collection

Artist: Sahak Poghosyan
Title: Silecne of My Grandmother's Eyes, 2015
Location: Artist's Collection

Nazaret Karoyan (Аrt critic): "Genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity and humanism are impossible to tell. It is impossible, not because it is difficult to picture events in fine arts, but since it is impossible to see and comprehend their terrible extent, it is impossible to open their countless and terrifying folds. Sahak Poghosyan in his project, while making substitutions between speech and image, hearing and vision, comes to say: – even if there are no forms to present what is indescribable and unimaginable, even if it is impossible to hear the words told by eyes, then, at least, one can materialize the silence accumulated in them to make visible what is inaudible."

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.
Note: the site carries no responsibility over the copyright genuinity issues in the SHARED ARTS section. But still if you come across possible violation of copyrights, please, do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected] email address.

shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian

Artist: Adriana Angolian

Live Memory, 1994

Artist:

Adriana Angolian

Artist: Adriana Angolian

Gold Universe, 2016

Artist:

Khoren Der Harootian

Artist: Khoren Der Harootian

Ani (bronze), 1963

Artist:

Alexander Sadoyan

Artist: Alexander Sadoyan

Immigration

Artist:

Alexander Sadoyan

Artist: Alexander Sadoyan

Untitled

Artist:

Levon Fljyan

Artist: Levon Fljyan

Our Ancestors-2 (from Pixel 2 project), 2012

Artist:

Kaloust Guedel

Artist: Kaloust Guedel

All Men are Created Alike, 2003

Artist:

Zareh

Artist: Zareh

Turkish Soup Made with Armenian Bones, 1998

Artist:

Zareh

Artist: Zareh

Artist:

Arthur Lazaryan

Artist: Arthur Lazaryan

Never Again

Contacts:

Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
E-mail: [email protected]

Social:

Partners:

Copyright © EIVA 2015