Rockefeller museum showcases celebrated Armenian ceramic artists

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ceramic works by Armenian artists David Ohannessian, Neshan Balian and Megerdish Karakashian are on display in Jerusalem's Rockefeller Archeological Museum and on the city streets, the Times of Israel says in a fresh article.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the British military governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs, asked the artists to restore the glazed tiles on the outer walls of the Dome of the Rock.

As fate would have it, within a very few years Storrs and the three Armenian artists changed the face of Jerusalem. For in 1920 Storrs decreed that every new building in the city had to be constructed with Jerusalem’s warm, native stone. At the same time, the Armenians were combining traditional ceramics with all that is uniquely Jerusalem.

The Rockefeller Museum is not home to an exciting exhibit showcasing 100 years of Armenian Jerusalem Ceramics.

"To view local Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem, all you need to do is wander through the city. They are found on dwellings built by wealthy Christians and Muslims during the British Mandate, in hotels, churches, museums, cemeteries, at least one mosque, and at the entrance to a synagogue," the article says.