Armenian Artists Make Friends in France
News/Paris
by Marlyne Sahakian

For the official “Cultural Season of Armenia in France” a full spectrum of Armenian cultural activities have taken place throughout the country this year, from art and fashion shows to musical and theatrical performances. Warmly received by Europe’s large Armenian Diaspora, star shows such as “Armenia Sacra,” an exhibition of medieval manuscripts at the Louvre, are also drawing a broader public.

Much of the activity is concentrated in Paris. While a handful of contemporary artists from Armenia are showing at small institutions, the larger shows have been dedicated to safe bets. The Centre Pompidou, for example, presented paintings by American-Armenian artist Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), whose flight from Ottoman persecution in the 1920s haunted his work for years to come. Also at the Louvre, French-Armenian artist Sarkis, a familiar name in the global art circuit, produced “Encounters with Uccello, Grünewald, Munch and Beuys,” for which he projected reproductions of five works that influenced his career alongside his own sculptures and videos.

At the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, an exhibition of over 70 collages and videos by surrealist artist SergueÏ Paradjanov (1924-1990) earned widespread acclaim. The prolific Paradjanov faced Soviet persecution in the 1970s and composed many of his extraordinarily imaginative and provocative collages in hard labor camps using recuperated materials.

One of the only contemporary art shows presenting emerging talent from Armenia, “Deep Blue” at the Artcore gallery in Paris built on the theme of the 2006 Gyumri Biennial, “The sea, between dream and illusion” (see Almanac 2). Young artist Vahram Aghassian, included in the past Venice Biennale, showed his eerie images of unfinished Soviet building constructions reflected in water. Sona Abgarian’s stark black wall painting of a girl urinating on her schoolbooks exemplified the show’s rebellious undertones. Aghassian was also among artists in a major show of Armenian video art curated by Armenian art critic Ruben Arevshatian at the Contemporary Art Museum in Lyon.