Vanessa Kachadurian Artists for Peace Flora Marrtirosyan

http://times.am/?l=en&p=15090 Armenian people’s artist, founder of the Artists for Peace charity organization, initiator of the cultural movement “Never again” Flora Marrtirosyan died today in the USA, Los Angeles. She was born on 1957. According to the initial information she died after operation. Remind that on November 15 an announcement was placed at the singer’s Facebook page according which her scheduled concert was postponed because of the illness. Accoridng to the information she was operated and her situation was normal then. Times.am expresses deep condolences towards the singers family, relatives and the whole Armenian nation for the bitter loss.

Vanessa Kachadurian Armenian Art on Display in Tibilisi

http://hetq.am/eng/news/21155/armenian-churches-in-tbilisi-yesterday-and-today-exhibition-opened-in-georgia.html An exhibition entitled "Armenian Churches in Tbilisi, Yesterday and Today" opened on December 1, 2012 at the “Hayartun” Cultural Center of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Georgia, The exhibition isdedicated to the founders of the Armenian Church Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. The idea of the exhibition belongs to Varujhan Khachaturov (Jean Khach), a well known Armenian painter from Tbilisi, who died too young. “Hayartun” Cultural Center at the Georgian-Armenian Diocese, the Union of Armenian Painters of Georgia and the National Archives of Armenia with the support of Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia are the organizers of the event. There were 26 Armenian churches in Tbilisi until 1930, one part of them was destroyed by the Soviet authorities and the other part in the 1990s’ became Georgian. The ideological basis of the exhibition is to represent Armenian churches in Tbilisi working until 1990s’, but nowadays destructed, not working or made Georgian. The paintings of Armenian and Georgian artists from Tbilisi and other regions participated in the exhibition. Sergo Vardosanidze, professor and rector of the St. Andrew University at the Georgian Patriarchate, and sheikh Vagif Akperov, the leader of Muslims Department in Georgia, were the guests of honor at the exhibition. The event was attended by poet and translator Givi Shakhnazari, Van Baiburtian, Advisor to the President of Georgia and the editor of "Vrastan" ("Georgia"), Henry Muradyan, Chairman of the Union of Armenians in Georgia, representatives of Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia, intellectuals, artists and ordinary citizens.

Vanessa Kachadurian, Art and honoring the Armenian Genocide

A large throng is expected to participate in the 98th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide to be held in Times Square on Sunday, April 21. The organizers invite people of all backgrounds to join together to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and subsequent genocides during Genocide Awareness Month and to speak out against this horrendous crime against humanity. The theme of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration is “Turkey is Guilty of Genocide: Denying the Undeniable is Criminal.” This historic event will pay tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire and to the millions of victims of subsequent genocides worldwide. Speakers will include civic, religious, humanitarian, educational, cultural leaders, and performing artists. This event is free and open to the public. Dennis R. Papazian, PhD, immediate past National Grand Commander of Knights of Vartan and Founding Director of the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Dr. Mary A. Papazian, President of Southern Connecticut State University, will preside over the ceremonies. Dr. Dennis Papazian comments, “Recent momentous events encourage me to believe that the long vigil of the Armenian people waiting for recognition of their genocide by the Turkish government may be coming to a positive conclusion. An influential Kurdish leader in Turkey, a member of Parliament and vice-president of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress, Ahmet Turk, admitted that the Kurdish people played a significant role in the ‘torture and massacre of Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis’ during the Armenian Genocide and apologized to the Armenian people. Turk stated, ‘Our grandfathers and fathers were used in the injustices perpetrated against Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis. There is blood on their hands. With the blood of these peoples they bloodied their own hands. Thus, as their children and grandchildren, we apologize.’” Dr. Papazian continues, “A second momentous event was the publication of a book in Turkey entitled ‘The Armenian Genocide’ by Hasan Cemal, the grandson of Cemal (Jamal) Pasha, one of the three main authors of the Armenian Genocide. Hasan Cemal, a member of the Turkish establishment and a newspaper columnist, began his inquiry into the Armenian Genocide following the killing of Turkish diplomats by a group of young Armenians who went by the name of ASAlA. At first, Hasan Cemal supported the official government point of view, and as he became more knowledgeable, finally concluded that indeed there was a genocide of the Armenians perpetrated by the Young Turk party which controlled the Ottoman government in 1915-1923. The book has inspired many members of the Turkish elites to reevaluate their denial of the Armenian Genocide.” Papazian adds, “Itzak Alaton, the owner of one of the largest corporations in Turkey, urged the Turkish Socio-Economic Research Center to pursue the Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide.” ”April 24, 1915 is just around the corner,” stated Alaton, “let us change our denialist policies. I am tired of the fear to face our past. Let us raise our voices to our deputies in Ankara and those deputies should raise their voices to their political parties and leaders in order for us to open our skeleton-fill closets.” Dr. Papazian concludes, “These three significant events which took place without any reprisal from the Turkish government imply that a positive change may be in the air.” The 98th Commemoration is organized by the Mid-Atlantic chapters of the Knights & Daughters of Vartan, an international Armenian fraternal organization headquartered in the United States, and co-sponsored by Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America , Armenian Council of America and the Armenian Democratic League-Ramgavars. Participating Organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Catholic Eparchy for US and Canada, Mid-Atlantic ACYOA, AYF, Armenian youth organizations, Armenian university and college clubs. Share! • • http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/02/22/armenian-genocide-98th-anniversary-commemoration-to-be-held-in-times-square-on-april-21/ • • • • • • •

Vanessa Kachadurian, the Art of Arthur Pinajian

NEW YORK—An exhibition of Arthur Pinajian’s abstract paintings was opened on Wed., Feb. 13 at the Antiquorum, on the fifth floor of the Fuller Building, located at 41 East 57th Street in New York. The exhibition is a revealing insight into the artistry of a painter who has been compared to Arshile Gorky. A significant part of the proceeds will support the work of the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) in Armenia. The 34 paintings, which are available for purchase, will be on exhibition and open to the public until March 10, Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Also available is a catalogue of his works, entitled Pinajian: Master of Abstraction Discovered, with essays by well-known art scholars, and edited by art scholar Peter Hastings Falk. . A unique artist During the opening night reception, FAR official Arto Vorperian welcomed the close to 200 guests, which included museum officials, art dealers, and art lovers. Peter Hastings Falk, the catalogue editor, also spoke, revealing that Arthur Pinajian did not follow the route of current artists who employ a retinue of agents, dealers, and business people. Pinajian, in a word, “did not conform to today’s norms. He painted every day, but no one saw his art. He received no reviews and not one of his paintings or works on paper ever was shown in a New York gallery or museum.” When he died, his art, which had been stored in his garage, was left to be destroyed at his request. Fortunately, it was rescued at the last minute, as the New York Times reported. Although there are few people today who know of his brilliant creativity, one couple at the opening reception related how they had purchased a figurative painting many years ago from the artist for a mere $100, “so that Pinajian could have money to purchase paint for his work.” Today, his abstract paintings are on sale for $3,750 to $87,000. A veteran art dealer at the exhibition predicted that in a few years, the price would shoot up to more than three or four times the amounts currently listed, as his fame spreads. It seems he was an artist one reads about in novels or sees in films—that is, the legendary starving artist who only sold paintings so that he could buy materials needed to continue his work. Arthur Pinajian, the child of Vartanoosh, a skilled embroiderer, and her husband Hagop, who worked for a dry cleaner, was born in 1914, with the name of Ashod in Union City, N.J. However, he preferred his nickname, Archie. A precocious youngster, he excelled in school, skipping grades, and possessed a voracious desire to draw with both hands at the same time. Newly graduated from high school in 1930 at age 16, during the Great Depression, with his father and uncle out of work, he took a job as a clerk in a carpet company to support his family. With the untimely death of his mother in 1932, he moved his father and sister to a much smaller apartment in Long Island, warmed only by a pot-belly stove. A pioneer in cartoon art Like many around him, the young Pinajian, seeking to escape from these harsh circumstances, went to the movies; after seeing Paul Muni in “Scarface,” he started his first comic strip. While still working at the carpet firm, he was hired as a freelance cartoonist by Lud Shabazian, a reporter-illustrator at the New York Daily News, and at age 20, he was promoting himself as a commercial illustrator. Taking only the sessions he could afford at the Art Students’ League and with the aid of the G.I. Bill, he honed his skills in the medium of the modern-day comic book. Regarded as among the pioneers of this new medium, he achieved considerable success in writing and drawing for such publishers as Quality, Marvel and Centaur, and working as an illustrator for ad agencies. Following his service in the U.S. Army in World War II, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star, he was drawn to the works of the old and modern art masters, and endlessly roamed through the Manhattan museums and art galleries. For the last 26 years of his life, he devoted his life completely to art, living in a tiny room. It was not until eight years after his death, that Pinajian’s artistic works would see the light of day. He was an artist who never used the tools of marketability, or exploited commercial connections. Never interested in fame, he was just too busy painting. Artistic struggle Pinajian’s art displays his emotional quest between figurative and abstract art. His representational art focused on landscapes and female nudes. Renowned art critic John Perreault writes that through Pinajian’s writings, which were scribbled in notebooks or on small bits of paper, we enter into his world of struggle and tension. “Pinajian found no easy answers. Each painting is a puzzle and a struggle, yielding light.” The Pinajian story “is or could be the basis of a new myth, that of the secret artist,” continues Perreault. “The secret artist lives among us. He (or she) seems ordinary on the outside and gives little sign of a hidden calling. Yet out of view, the secret artist toils, producing painting after painting. The ecstasy is in the making. Looking at Pinajian’s lifetime of work, we participate in that ecstasy.” The Fund for Armenian Relief, an organization founded following a devastating earthquake in 1988, has served hundreds of thousands of people through more than 225 relief and development programs in Armenia and Artsakh (Karabagh). It has channeled more than $290 million in humanitarian and developmental assistance by implementing a wide range of projects, including emergency relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic development http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/03/06/revealing-the-art-of-arthur-pinajian/

Vanessa Kachadurian on Hakob Hakobyan's death of an Artist

Renowned Armenian painter Hakob Hakobyan passed away on Fri., March 8 in Yerevan. Hakobyan’s art earned him the honorary title of People’s Artist of Soviet Armenia and a State Prize of Armenia in 1977. Hakob Hakobyan Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1923 to Armenian refugees from Aintab, the young Hakobyan was shielded from the horrors that his parents and grandparents experienced during the genocide. He was sent to study at the Melkonian Educational Institute in Cyprus, and later the Cairo High School of Fine Arts, followed by the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. He participated in international contests and festivals for young artists, receiving second place in the Fourth World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) in Bucharest, Hungary, in 1953. His early works were characterized by small-size oil, namely still lifes and one-figure compositions in interiors, often times portraying sympathy for the “little man.” The paintings of this period depict the isolation of the people portrayed. In 1961, Hakobyan moved to Armenia, where he was elected a member of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Armenia just six years later. The paintings of this new period were marked by an original style, as Hakobyan was attempting to assimilate into the new homeland. His depiction of Armenia’s natural landscape and its various villages and cityscapes mark a vital stage in Hakobyan’s progress as a Soviet Armenian painter. As ArmSite.com explains, Hakobyan’s work is “evocative of the ‘other side’ of the traditions of Armenian culture,” which include the constructivist and rational principle of form building. “His artistic progress is an example of the consecutive and purposeful development of the spiritual world and humanistic aspirations of an artist in our own day.” In 1987, Hakobyan was awarded with the USSR State Prize for a series of watercolor paintings that stood out with a high degree of artistry. Some of his most prominent works include “Park Near St. Hripsime Temple,” “Echmiadzin” (1976); “Vineyard in Winter” (1979); “In Artist’s Studio” (1980); “Forlorn Corner” (1980); and “Garni Gorge” (1980). Some of these pieces, as well as others, are currently on display as part of a new exhibition of Soviet and contemporary art from Central Asia and the Caucasus at the Sotheby’s auction house in London, called “At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasus and Central Asia

Vanessa Kachadurian, Treasures of Armenia exhibit and sale

http://www.ticketfly.com/event/245235-art-exhibit-treasures-philadelphia/ Art Exhibit: Treasures of Armenia As part of IHP’s celebration of Armenian culture, please join us on Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 6pm for the opening of Treasures of Armenia art exhibit. This open-call, juried exhibit of artists of Armenian descent will feature works in a variety of media from artists of at least partial Armenian descent. Works have been selected to create a cohesive presentation that highlights contemporary Armenian art. The exhibited artworks will be on display from April 3, 2013 until June 30, 2013 as well as during IHP’s 52nd Global Gala: Treasures of Armenia on May 18th. All exhibited artwork will be for sale, and proceeds will benefit Armenian students and scholars who are members of International House, a housing project in Vanadzor, Armenia, and the Armenian Sisters Academy – the only Armenian school in the Greater Philadelphia region. The opening reception begins at 6pm, and will include wine and light hors d’oeuvres. There will be 10 Armenian artists participating. Vahe Ashodian Hratch Babikian Sophia Chitjian Monique Kendikian-Sarkessian Rose Manteghian Adrienne Minassian Luke Momjian Stepan Sacklarian (deceased) Sosy Maral M. Shishmanian Ara Zeibarian