Disintegration and Liberation: Post-Soviet Art in Armenia
Over a dozen paintings five contemporary Armenian artists are displayed in Disintegration and Liberation: Post-Soviet Art in Armenia . Through the work of Armen Kevorkian, Emma Griogorian, Haroutium Hakobyan, Teni Vardanian, and Gabo, this exhibition explores the reaction of prominent Armenian artists to the fall of the Soviet Empire and the end of years of communist rule. The exhibition traces the history of the Armenian people, as the works explore the traditional Armenian themes of religion, cultural topography, and war in the Post-Soviet era.
A piece by Armen Kevorkian
Armenia, a landlocked country in western Asia, occupies part of the isthmus between the Caspian and Black Seas. The country is bordered by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. Armenians have a strong and vivid national consciousness. Armenians have been without their own nation for centuries. They were subjects under the Persian Empire, were persecuted under the Ottoman Empire, and oppressed as part of the Soviet Union. Although their homeland was always under occupation, Armenians kept a powerful sense of their roots, their heritage and the sacrifices of their ancestors.
During roughly 70 years of tyranny under Soviet Union rule, Armenia and its sister states endured intellectual, political, cultural and personal repression. Despite this, signs of Armenia’s nationalism remained intact: schools taught Armenian history and literature, government was conducted in the Armenian language (the only Soviet state allowed to do so), and the Armenian Orthodox Church was allowed to exist in peace.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Armenia is enjoying independent statehood for the first time in centuries. With the fall came a rise in artistic expression, exploring not only the newfound freedom from Soviet-communism, but also the strong, traditional Armenian themes of religion and culture.