Grigor Khandjyan

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Grigor Khandjyan

 

It is with the deepest pain and sorrow that we announce the passing away of Grigor Khandjyan, which occurred on April 18, 2000. He was 73...

 

 

Biography: In the galaxy of masters that have made the fine arts in Armenia what they are today a pride of place belongs to Grigor Khandjyan. The artist, a brilliant book illustrator, painter, tapestry designer, is well - known and his art is liked far beyond its borders.

 

Reproducing in his creativity the best traditions of Armenian art and endowed with a wide scope of ideographic vision Khandjyan is able to address himself to a multinational viewing public. His art shows the best fine arts in our own days.

 

A series of illustrations (1959) for the novel "Armenia's Wounds" by a classic of Armenian literature Abovyan, for the poem "The Ever - tolling Bell Tower" (1968) by Sevak and cartoons for large-scale tapestries on historical themes: "Vardanank" and "Armenian Alphabet" (1981) - the peaks of Khandjyan's creativity up to date - have been preceded by a long career throughout which the artist strove to carry on a dialogue with the mass viewer and to prove his ability to awaken various memories and emotions in the spectators and to pass on to them the lofty ideals of good and justice. Grigor Khandjyan began as a genre painter. His canvases and first illustrations for books by Armenian writers and poets revealed the artist's bent for lyricism and a sharp eye for and love of minute detail. Already in his illustrations for Tumanyan's poem "Sako of Lori" (1957) the master displayed temperament, expressiveness and great skill in representing highly dramatic scenes in addition to a complete lack of shyness in rendering multifigured compositions filled with dynamism and tension. In the later years Khandjyan used this style in executing themes of a different inner meaning: the history of Armenia becomes the main subject matter of his work.

 

The concept of the history of his native people was forming gradually in the artist's mind gaining maturity and completeness with the passage of years. His interpretation of the historical theme became clear in his illustrations for Abovyan's novel "Armenia's Wounds", in his presentation of the tragic events described in the book, of the masses involved in those events and in his accentuation of the hero's figure leading his people. The Epic - of - Heroism theme is treated here along with the Self - Sacrifice motif. In the black-and-white sheets, the deeds and nature of Agasi, the principal hero of the novel, are presented with romantic elan and inspiration.

 

In the book design line Khandjyan distinguished himself next by his illustrations for Sevak's poem "The Ever - tolling Bell Tower". The illustrations brought to light another aspect of Armenia's history. The central figure of the poem is the composer Komitas, its main theme is the story of his life and death. Komitas shared with his people the tragedy of the 1915 massacre of the Armenian population in Turkey. The illustrations were inspired by and dealt with the facts of the composer's fate. As designed by Khandjyan, the poem became a desk-book in each household in Armenia. The artist treated the subject on a par with the author helping to retain in the reader's memory the vivid image of the hero and his own view on the tragedy.

 

The exhibition of Khandjyan's cartoons for tapestries on the best - known events of national history became a landmark in Armenia's art life. The cartoons depicted the battle-scene of the 451 war wages by Prince Vardan Mamikonyan with the Persians, and the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots in the fifth century A.D. Khandjyan executed the battle-scene with the sweep of a classical battle painting displaying a superb skill in brush and color handling. The cartoons left a profound impression upon the viewers. By a happy stroke of his imagination the artist placed among the Armenian warriors battling the enemy the images of all outstanding cultural figures of Armenia's past and present history. Easily recognized by the spectators they were thus honored and given their due in art. The implication was clear to the public -everybody who has contributed to his or her native culture is a combatant in the people's battle for its life, dignity and national identity.

 

The response of the viewers to those cartoons was so enthusiastic that it was deemed necessary to reproduce them as frescoes in a special hall of a cultural center under construction in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. It is noteworthy that Khandjyan owns the success of his book illustrations and of his cartoons-tapestries were made after them in France in 1985 - not only to his pictorial skills and the plastic authenticity of his art. It also springs from the artist's overtly didactical treatment of the theme and of those involved in the events he depicts. He shows the hero as the symbol of light and the hero's enemies as the embodiment of evil. The chords struck by the painter in his viewers' hearts united them all in the acclaim of his work without exception.

 

Khandjyan's art never impresses one as a product of straightforward spontaneity- it bears witness of the artist's prolonged pondering over the landmarks in Armenian history and those who make it. The artist casts a modern man's look upon historical events he deals with and evaluates them in the light of the spiritual experience of the twentieth century. Of exceptional interest in this respect are the travel graphic sheets done by Khandjyan during his trips to Italy , Spain and Mexico. Those are much more significant than just sketch-book drawings- they are pictures drawn by an observer overwhelmed by his impressions. The artist is concerned with human drama no matter where he comes across it. "A Chronicle of Our Day" is the title of a series of lithographs made by him in 1972. The series, in a way, sums up the observations and the reflections of Khandjyan as a mature master. His close contacts with Spanish and Mexican cultures brought forth a new line in the artist's treatment of motifs inherent in his art- now passion and overtness made themselves felt in them. These contacts stood him yet in another good stead- in 1978 Khandjyan made stage designs for "Lorca's Bloody Wedding" performed in one of Armenia's theaters.

 

Paintings by Grigor Khandjyan are intimately linked with the graphic art pieces executed by him. In them one finds the best of that master's art: bold preoccupation with the most important and sensitive problems of the day, a bent for presenting complex relationships, lyricism. His idiom amply manifests itself in "Sunflowers" (1975), "Grain Crops in the Mountains" (1972) and "Homecoming" (1975). But from the mid-seventies onwards still lifes become the leading form in Khandjyan's work.

 

These fall easily into groups, each having its own theme, ideas and implications. One is a set of rural still lifes presenting peasant household articles and fruit accentuating their charm and simplicity and putting across the idea of the specific pleasure of living in close proximity to nature. Another set of still lifes carries insets with reproductions of the works of art by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Vrubel, Rodin, and Manzu. These insets give the spectator a clue to understanding the artist's ideas. In the still lifes on the art theme Khandjyan fills an artist's studio with such objects as stretchers, canvases, rolls of paper, and pieces of sculpture. These assume a spiritual meaning , inert materials as they are, before our own eyes, while the cast of a human hand appearing in many compositions, and identified with Khandjyan's own hand conveys to us the idea that high art is the making of human hands, of man's imagination and skill.

 

Since the seventies the artist's passion for folk art has manifested itself in numerous still lifes and in some of his larger compositions. It led Khandjyan to taking an actively practical part in the revival of the traditional folk crafts in Armenia. He was helpful in renewing the production of forged wrought-iron gates and metal lamps as well as of various wood-carved items.

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