A Walking Tour Introduction to Armenian Art

Armine, our guide

Recently we joined a group of about 9 (seven women and two men), including US Ambassador John Heffern and his wife Libby Heffern,  for a walking tour focused on art in Northern Yerevan. Led by artist and fashion designer, Armine Tumanyan, the walk was sponsored by the International Women's Association of Yerevan. We met our tour

leader at 28 Moskovian Street, the site of a travel agency that specializes in tours to Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Armenia that is also claimed by Azerbaijan. On the wall outside is a four-story mosaic created by young artists participating in a program to beautify streetscapes in Yerevan. Another program resulted in painted murals in previously dark passages. 

Mosaic at 28 Moskovian Street

Vilik Zarakyn in his studio

Armine led us from there to the studio of Vilik Zarakyn, one of her art teachers and an active contemporary painter. Vilik  was very generous in showing us his work, talking about his own development as an artist, and answering the kinds of questions that probably drive artists of any stripe nuts (e.g., where do you get your ideas, what does this mean, etc.).

Ironwork fence along street at the Writer's Union

As we ambled along we came across an important and perhaps once grand building, which is home to the Armenian Writers Union. During the Soviet Era each socialist republic had its own Writers Union and there was also a collective or grand writer's union. A point of Armenian pride is that an Armenian writer was at one time the President of the Soviet Union's Writer's Union. I was struck by the ironwork fence and building detail. The building now looks a little down-at-its-heels, but is actively in use for the continuing purpose of bringing writers together.

Botero's healthy kitty cat

Our  next stop was the sculpture garden at the base of the Cascade (which future posts will describe in detail). Due north of Opera Square and France Square, this is one of the best maintained and obviously most-loved areas in the city. It's in a neighborhood of beautiful apartments buildings on tree-lined streets. Plantings of creeping thyme provide a carpet for designs of sweet alyssum and other annuals and a short green hedge that functions like boxwood. his large space with generous walkways is filled with sculptures by Colombian sculptor Juan Botero and others.

The teapot has an Alice in Wonderland feel to it.

One of my favorites is a lacy-looking teapot that has seats inside it and a door (padlocked) to the inside. This particular piece must draw a lot of attention by visitors (I am guilty)  with a desire to touch it because two guards stand nearby to tell you not to tough the sculptures. Never mind that other pieces, especially the big Botero pieces (at least 3) have shiny places where lots of people have rubbed the surface to shiny. Tell me people have not been touching that cat's paws.

Kochar was often seen with his pipe.

In front of The Disasters of War

The final stop on  our walking tour was a one-artist museum dedicated to the man who is considered the father of surrealism in Armenia. Ermand Kochar expressed himself in a wide range of media--from sculpture to drawings to paintings. One of his most famous paintings, The Disasters of War, holds pride of place in this small museum where we had enjoyed an enthusiastic commentary by the head curator.