An exhibition titled “Ararat. The Holy Mount” opened today at the Armenian National Gallery.
The exclusive exhibition embraces paintings and graphic works of Armenian classic and contemporary artists, including Gevorg Bashinjaghian, Martiros Sarian, Hakob Kojoyan, Georgy Yakulov, Yeghishe Tadevossian, Stepan Aghajanian, Sedrak Arakelian, Panos Terlemezian, Hovhannes Zardaryan,Petros Konturajian, Grigor Khanjyan, Seyran Khatlamajian, Ruben Grigoryan and others. The majority of the works are “pure” landscapes.
Along with the same common motif of Mount Ararat and the Ararat Valley, the biblical mount is in its own way represented in the canvases of each artist thus expressing the artist’s own perceptions and feelings. It begets the innermost feelings of national spirit, love and pride in homeland numerous generations have been nurtured and brought up with.
As home of humanity, Mount Masis rises in its primeval majesty (“Noah Descending Mount Ararat”, 1889 by H. Aivazovsky, “Mount Ararat”, 1912 by G. Bashinjaghian, “Mount Ararat”, 1968 by H. Zardaryan). As an important part of homeland’s collective image it completes the beauty of the nature in a number of paintings (“Mount Ararat”, 1929 by M. Sarian, “Armenia”, ca 1927 by G. Yakulov, “Mount Ararat”, 1914 by Ye. Tadevossian, “Mount Masis in Autumn”, 1922 by P. Terlemezian and “Mount Ararat”, 1985 by S. Khatlamajian).
In some canvases the Mount is represented as a centuries-old evidence of the ties between the past and the present (“Yerevan on the Background of Mount Ararat in Spring”, 1923 by St. Aghajanian, “Mount Ararat at Sunset”, 1961 by G. Gyurjian and “Khor Virap and the Lesser Ararat” by V. Karapetyan).
