Ararat-Eskijian Museum to host talk on orphans who became painters

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ararat-Eskijian Museum and National Association for Armenian Studies and research will present an illustrated talk by Prof. Levon Chookaszian Director of the UNESCO Chair of Art History at Yerevan State University titled “The Armenian Orphans Who Became Painters” on Sunday, August 23, 2015.

The talk will focus on those who had survived miraculously the Armenian Genocide and grew up in different orphanages and a good number of them became well known painters and sculptors, according to Massis Post.

Unfortunately, up to present time there is no special survey devoted to those orphaned artists.

Some who became famous painters were Levon Tutunjian (1906-1968) born in Armenia, the painter and sculptor Khoren Der-Harootian (1909-1991) born in Ashotavan (presently called Ashuan, Kero Antoian (1912-1994) from Dersim Region, Simon Samsonian (1915-2004) from Samsun region, Harutiun Galentz (Harmandarian) (1910-1967), was born in Kyurin.

The Abstract Art and Surrealism were an expression and style closest to their hearts. They expressed their recollections of the homeland, “spoke” about the refugee nostalgia and described these horrific events that they had witnessed through their art.

Dr. Levon Chookaszian is the UNESCO Professor of Armenian Art History at Yerevan State University and one of the leading authorities in the world on Armenian art. He is the author of two monographs: one on the art of 13th century Armenian miniaturist Grigor (Grigor Tsaghkogh, 1986), and the other on the art of the painter Arshag Fetvadjian (Arshag Fetvadjian, 2011). Chookaszian has taught at Yerevan State University since 1978 and is one of the founders of the department of art history. In 1996 he established the UNESCO Chair of Armenian Art History. Since 1992 he has delivered nearly two hundred lectures at universities, libraries, and museums across the world.

In 2015 Professor Chookaszian was accepted to the academy of Sciences of Milan in Italy.