THE ORIENT AND ARMENIAN ART

Cultural interconnection is one of the urgent issues of the contemporary art; it makes a powerful key impetus for the development of culture. In the East-West crossroads Armenia has long ago been closely connected with Ancient Orient and ancient civilizations. This has made the country one of the most interesting points of the union of various cultural aspects.

Armenia has played a greatest role in the formation of Christian world perception.
Each historic period while changing the fortune and spiritual cue of Armenia has in its own way been expressed in artworks. These works characterized by invariable traits peculiar for the national thinking nevertheless preserve the artistic features of East and West. The displayed works not always represent a complete scope, though the conception of the exhibition and the criteria of the selection contribute to the revelation of artistic relations between

Armenian art and Near East, Middle East and Far East countries, illustrating ongoing process of art evolution.

The exhibition “The Orient and Armenian Art” at Armenian National Gallery is a comprehensive and multi-layer exhibition. Along with medieval monuments, miniatures and murals, art of the new period, including portraits of the Hovnatanians, the art heritage of Armenian classic artists and works of contemporary masters are on display.

The subject of the Orient is the integral part of the creative activity of V. Sureniants, H. Kojoyan, M. Sarian, G. Yakulov and H. Ter-Tadevossian. In the works of others including Y. Kochar and M. Aslamazian the subject is often expressed mediated and sometimes clearly.

The art of the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries, including A. Hovhannisyan, M. Avetisyan, K. Vardanyan, Hagop Hagopian, S. Khatlamajyan, R. Elibekyan, M. Petrosyan, E. Kharazyan, A. Bayandour, Raffi Adalyan and Hrachya Hakobyan express the traditions of the national school united with avant-garde tendencies, which renew the expressive means of the Armenian contemporary art. A. Bazhbeuk-Melikian, H. Karalian, V. Elibekyan, G. Khachatryan and S. Parajanov; these names make the pleiad of brilliant masters that have formed a specific direction of the national painting school.

The presented paintings together with graphic papers and items of sculpture and decorative-applied art unveil the complicated ways of interchange of art information that have nowadays become rapid; they arouse our imagination and widen the borders of contemporary culture.

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