PRESS RELEASE
New Art Center
580 Eighth Avenue
New York, Ny 10018
t: 212.354.2999
e: info@newartcenter.net

THE GENOCIDE SERIES BY BARBARA YETERIAN

New Art Center is delighted to announce an exhibition of new paintings
by Barbara Yeterian from her `Genocide Series.’ The exhibition will
run
from April 4 through May 27, 2006.

The `Genocide Series’ by Barbara Yeterian refers to the first
genocide
of the 20th century – the extermination of the Armenian people in
Ottoman Turkey. The exhibition coincides with the commemoration of this
tragedy on April 24th. The artist’s paintings, however, are about
more
general aspects of the human condition, such as fear and despair,
persecution and captivity, pain and torture. In each of her paintings,
Yeterian shows herself to be deeply socially engaged as a gifted artist
who transforms her material in order to create a private yet universal
language that can touch everyone.

The artist’s close study of the gestural dynamism of deKooning, the
symbolist astringency of Edvard Munch and the painterly dis-integration
of Francis Bacon’s painted bodies is evident in her work. In this
regard, Yeterian’s work is undeniably and powerfully expressionistic.
While depicting the dark side of humanity, Yeterian, as Kathe Kollwitz,
has the capacity to depict images of great nobility and warmth. These
images counteract Nietzsche’s assertion ‘death and the stillness of
death are the only things certain and common to all.’ They also
suggest
that the rage at the corruption of power is not the only possible
answer to the horrors of displacements and genocides.

The artist has tread a delicate path between visually eliciting the
emotional weight of trials and tribulations of the people without
resorting directly to anecdotal details. What is most evident in
Yeterian’s multilayered large-scale work, with its dense painterly
structure, is the passionate intensity of the brushstroke and the
resourceful use of almost iconized figures she uses as stand-ins for
the collective fate of the people. History for this artist, is a
palpable memory that overtakes us in the most familiar surroundings and
haunts us in our dreams.

Paintings from the `Genocide Series’ are included in the ongoing
`Legacy Project’ sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation
().

New Art Center is open to public Tuesday through Saturday, 12 – 6 pm,
and by appointment. For more information or visuals please contact the
New Art Center