Armenian Library & Museum of America
March 22, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
Contact Person: Mariam Stepanyan
Tel: 617.926.2562
Martiros Saryan:
‘European in Asia, Asian in Europe’
Presentation by Professor John Malmstad
4 PM Sunday, March 26, 2006
“Painter of happiness”, “Maestro of colors”, “Great Master of Armenian
art”… Regardless of how one refers to him, Martiros Saryan
(1880-1972) was a true artist. He laid the foundation and established
standard for Armenian national art of the 20th century. The Armenian
Library and Museum of America (ALMA) is paying tribute to the great
Master of Art by hosting a presentation on March 26. Professor John
Malmstad, Samuel Hazzard Cross Professor of Slavic Languages and
Literatures at Harvard University, will deliver a slide presentation
and talk about famed Armenian artist Martiros Saryan and his impact on
the evolution of European and Armenian art. Dr. Malmstad was the 1997
recipient of the Lomonosov Prize, for the book “Mikhail Kuzmin:
Iskusstvo, zhizn’, epokha”, which he had co-authored with Nikolay
Bogomolov, as “best piece of literary criticism or history in Russian
in 1996.”
When exposed to Saryan’s art, one is not simply looking at marvelous
paintings. Rather, one comes in touch with Saryan’s world, with warmth
and light of nature, with diversity of colors, thoroughly felt and
clarified by the painter. Saryan never longed for the doubtful glories
of easy successes, and never mistook painting with taking
photographs. He does not copy nature: he creates it. Saryan himself
thought that “true art was not simply illustration but a great
discovery of the world”. Influenced by Russian, Western European and
Armenian artistic cultures, Saryan was able to fuse the rich variety
of impressions and and traditions into a profoundly individual style
that invariably bore the stamp of his vivid, powerful and
intrinsically positive personality. Known for his saturated colors
(the signature yellow-brown hues and the deep blues), a unique harmony
of shapes and colors, Saryan was a master of composition. French poet
Louis Aragon thought that Saryan’s colors were ! so beautiful that
future generations would assign him a supreme place even higher than
France’s Cezanne and Matisse, because Saryan was the painter of
happiness.
The talk will be held at ALMA’s contemporary art gallery, which
currently showcases the artwork of Ghazaros Saryan, the great grandson
of Martiros Saryan. Ghazaros Saryan is exhibiting a new collection of
oil and water color paintings which provide a link to the past and a
glimpse of the future for Armenian contemporary art.
The presentation will take place at 4 pm on Sunday, March 26 at the
Armenian Library & Museum of America (Watertown Square, 65 Main
Street, Watertown, MA). It is open to public. For more information,
please contact ALMA at 617.926.2562 ext. 3 or email [email protected].
Armenian Library and Museum of America, Inc.
65 Main Street
Watertown MA 02472
Tel: 617 926 2562
Fax: 617 926 0175
Armenian Library and Museum of America, Inc.
65 Main Street
Watertown MA 02472
Tel: 617 926 2562
Fax: 617 926 0175
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
