Commemorating event for the anniversary of the famous Armenian painter Minas Avetisyan in Yerevan, Armenia

In order to acknowledge the 86th anniversary of the great Armenian artist Minas Avetisyan on July 20th, Foundation KulturDialog Armenien presented Minas’ work “This is Where We Lived” (1968) in cooperation with the Museum of Russian Art, Yerevan. For this occasion, the museum granted the public access to the famous painting, which is normally stored in the museum’s depot, for a week (19.-26.07.2015). In 2014, the painting was part of the special exhibition “Minas and Narek Avetisyan. Modernism and Avant-garde in Armenia” at the Fine Arts Museum Moritzburg in Halle (Saale), (county museum of Saxony-Anhalt), Germany.
In cooperation with the German county Saxony-Anhalt and its county museum Stiftung Moritzburg (Landesmuseum Sachsen-Anhalt) KulturDialog Armenien presented the special exhibition “Minas and Narek Avetisyan. Modernism and Avant-garde in Armenia“ in Halle (Saale), Germany from February 21st to May 4th, 2014. This exhibition in Germany allowed to exhibit together works of these two generations of artists for the first time. It contrasted 19 works by Minas Avetisyan with 9 works by his son Narek Avetisyan and thus gave insight to the oeuvre of one of the most important artists of Armenia in the 20th century, Minas Avetisyan, and to approach a work series by Narek Avetisyan, the country’s most important contemporary artist today.
Narek Avetisyan, the son of Minas, spoke about last year’s joint exhibition in Germany. He also presented the trilingual exhibition catalogue, which concentrated largely on the oeuvre of his father. An illustrated trilingual catalogue (German, Armenian, English) was published exclusively on the occasion of this exhibition in Halle. It provided the reader with a great variety of material and an appreciable photographic documentation on the live and work of Minas Avetisyan. The included essay on Minas Avetisyan by the German Art History Professor Emeritus Dr. Wilhelm Schlink positions the artist and his work in an international art context. The comprehensive and exclusive interview Narek Avetisyan granted the German art historian Marie-Christine Fritsch allowed to understand better the relation between father and son. The reader can follow Narek Avetisyan’s artistic development and evaluate his current position in the art world. Special emphasis was given to the exhibited “Interfractal Series” by Narek Avetisyan as the interview presented Avetisyan’s approach to this primarily mathematical subject and explained how the artists has created this unique, interdisciplinary project. In 2009, on the occasion of Minas Avetisyan’s 80th anniversary, KulturDialog Armenien published the penultimate illustrated catalogue “Minas”, dedicated to the renowned artist and his works which can be found exclusively in private collections.
The latest, trilingual catalogue which accompanied the exhibition “Minas and Narek Avetisyan. Modernism and Avant-garde in Armenia“ in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt), Germany, in 2014, focuses greatly on the creative life of Minas Avetisyan to appropriately commemorate the artist’s 85th anniversary. As it commited also to the development of his late artistic career, the catalogue deliberately complemented the catalogue published in 2009. Additionally, a film documenting the exhibition in Germany was shown that day. The public was given the possibility to see the famous work of Minas and bought the exhibition catalogue. The catalogue was available at the Museum of Russian Art.