Armenian Massacres and Genocide and the Liberation Movement as Reflected in Armenian Art

Dr. Levon Chookaszian, Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies at Fresno State, will give an illustrated lecture on “Armenian Massacres and Genocide and the Liberation Movement as Reflected in Armenian Art,” at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, October 18, 2006. This second lecture, in his series of three, will be held in the Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191, in the University Business Center on the Fresno State campus.

The Armenian massacres of 1895-96 and of 1905-1907 stimulated the appearence of topics related to those events in the works of Armenian painters. The first artist who represented the acts of violence and ethnic cleaning was Haroutyune Shamshinian(1856-1914). Later on numerous Armenian artworks were produced by different artists depicting those horrible pages of Armenian modern history.

During the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922, certain painters became the eyewitnesses of the deportation of the Armenian people from their native lands and portrayed those homeless people, sometimes even endangering their own life.

The mass tragedies of those years created the generations of orphan-painters, who grew up in orphanages in foreign countries and until the end of their lives produced artworks full of sadness and nostalgy.

The shortages of the Soviet system and the ideological pressure and censorship were not encouraging that kind of activity and were creating obstacles and problems for painters and sculptors. The depiction of any topic related to massacres or Genocide was considered as nationalistic propaganda and an attempt to destroy the international solidarity and brotherhood of different nations, including Armenian-Turkish, especially Armenian-Azeri connections.

Dr. Chookaszian will utilize slides taken from his many trips to various countries to illustrate his lecture.

Dr. Chookaszian will conclude his series of the presentations on Wednesday, November 15, with a talk on “Armenian Art Treasures Saved from the Genocide.” The talk will start at 7:30 PM in the Peters Auditorium.

Dr. Chookaszian is an expert on Armenian illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and has recently finished a monograph on the 13th century Armenian painter, Toros Roslin, the most outstanding painter of medieval Armenia. For many years Dr. Chookaszian has been Director of the UNESCO Chair of Art History at Yerevan State University and a Senior Fellow and Professor of Armenian Art at the Center for Armenian Studies at Yerevan State University.

Dr. Chookaszian is the author of more than 200 articles and reviews for scholarly journals and newspapers as well as numerous entries for encyclopedias. He is also the recipient of several prestigious grants that have helped him pursue his research in Armenian art history.

Dr. Chookaszian has participated in many international congresses and symposia on the topic of Armenian, Georgian, Russian, Persian, and Byzantine Art.

All lectures are fee and open to the public.