National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Colorful Show

In a first ever show by an Armenian artist in Nepal, Gevorgyan exhibits his paintings that he carried to Nepal all the way from Armenia

By THAKUR AMGAI

The walls of Siddhartha Art Gallery were covered with paintings of an Armenian artist from 15 to 21 June. The paintings, prepared by Armen Gevorgyan, depict various elements of nature and moods of the artists in different situations.

They are featured with distinctly bright colors - the combination of red, yellow and blue in particular. The artist says he did not intend to impose meaning through the colors. “I just put my feelings in them. But obviously the colors do have meaning and it is up to the audience to derive meaning out of them.”

Use of colors is his specialty. Red, yellow and blue colors are extensively used to show landscapes and flowers at some paintings while just to depict the artist’s mood at others. “The red-yellow collection represent a kind of drama, affirmation of a spiritual conflict, a symbol of a different world where all existing plains between reality and surrealism have been covered,” writes Sangita Thapa, the curator of the gallery. Further, the colors used in the paintings are decisive, sonorous and unusual. They stand as means of expressing the artist’s moods and not as the goal.

In addition, the technique of painting also seems to be different. He agrees that the touch of paintings could be different as the technique followed in the east is different to the technique followed in the European countries.

The paintings are very expressive. They interact with the viewers in the language that the latter understands best. The artist said in the inaugural ceremony, “My English is not very good, but my paintings speak in many languages.”

All the eighteen paintings put up are drawn on either cardboard or canvas using oil and pastel. The paintings are of various sizes ranging from 31.5 inches by 24 inches to 100 inches by 70 inches.

His shows are very distinct as compared to that of others. Not only the use of colours and the way of depiction of his feelings are distinct, the paintings are not for sale unlike most of the exhibitions that are put up.

The paintings of the artist are the condensations of the spirit’s reality, which has been expressed by colors, lines and shapes. According to the artist, the mysticism does not mean symbolic and abstract secret but, it is a clear and real science that requires its clarification and recognition.

He justifies, “Abstract means only color and forms and not being able to make anything out of it. My paintings have elements of nature in them. And everybody can understand mountains, landscapes and flowers.” However, some of his paintings need a long pondering to understand its meaning. Paintings like the “Christmas Mood” and “Creation” can be partly understood only after a very close inspection.

In his early students years, the artist was inspired by esoteric literature that gave his works a mystic aura. He was a student of fine art academy of Bulgaria, whose students are highly esteemed in the world of art. He has done countless group exhibitions and at least a dozen solo exhibitions in countries including Germany, Russia, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries. This is his as well as an Armenian artist’s first exhibition in Nepal. The paintings, however, are not the creations done in Nepal. These paintings were carried all the way from Armenia to Nepal via Germany. He said he is working to put up a different show with the paintings produced in Nepal itself incorporating the eastern technique and Nepalese landscapes.

The landscapes depicted in his paintings stand as a nostalgic reminder of his homeland. As a Christian, his mood during the Christmas time is expressed through colors on the painting “Christmas mood.”

Govergyan’s landscapes are fine and poetic. Architectural monuments, trees and mountains are decided in blue tinges tending towards the sky. The common nature harmonizes with the author’s fantasy and becomes extraordinary art. The paintings embody the search of the Artist for the new inspiration.

The exhibition was inaugurated by the German Ambassador to Nepal Rudiger Lemp, among a group of invitees, which largely comprised of the representation from members of diplomatic missions.