JANSEM: 1920 The roots of Jansem's deeply humanistic work lie in the heritage of Bruegel, Goya and Daumier. In 1922, Jansem (Jan-Hovanes Semerdjian) and his family fled persecution in Turkey for Greece, and subsequently to France. The young man studied in the Free Academies of Montparnasse, and then graduated from the Higher Arts School. He began exhibiting (at the Salon des Independants) in 1944. The critics described him as the champion of outcasts, but the artist’s characters, even when in a state of extreme depression, never impose their sorrow on the viewer. They are proud and dignified. The artist reveals an unusual, deeply philosophical world woven from trials and trepidations; with confident drawing it spreads out like a network of blood vessels across the canvas and brings the object out of the depth. Major Works; Still Life with Maize, 1964 Market, 1973 Claudius, 1978 Procession, 1978 Homage to Goya, 1978 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ARSHILE GORKY 1904-1948 One of the most famous contemporary artists, the founder of Abstract Surrealism, Gorky was described by Andre Breton as the most important painter in American history. was born in Western Armenia, in the village of Khorgom on the banks of Lake Van. In 1915, Gorky (Vostanik-Manuk Adoyan) escaped Turkish massacres with thousands of others refugees by fleeing to Yerevan, where his mother died of famine. In 1920 he came to the US. His whole life in the new country, which ended in suicide, consisted of years of hard work and bitter struggle. Gorky made a thorough study of the art of ancient peoples, including the Armenians, and passed through all the stages in modern art until his efforts crystallized in his own personal style. Taking his artistic language to its limits and hiding in plants, flowers, a plough and peasant attire the deep meaning of life, Gorky achieved a superb harmony of idea and feeling. His work was a disturbing poem of great love and nostalgia, and the retrospective of his work in the Guggenheim Museum in 1984 was quite rightly described as Armenian-American art. Major Works; Garden in Sochi, 1940 Garden in Sochi, 1941 How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life, 1944 Agony, 1947 The Plow and the Song, 1947 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MARTIROS SARIAN 1880-1972 The founder of modern Armenian painting, Saryan developed his painting style working in all the newest trends, and was the first Armenian artist to recognize the need to form an individual style founded on ancient national traditions. The artist was born in the small Armenian populated town of Novy Nakhichevan, near Rostov on Don, and studied in Moscow under Valery Serov and Konstantin Korovin. Under the influence of his first trip to the land of his fathers in 1901, he created a cycle of works in pantheist spirit, "Fairy Tales and Dreams," stylistically influenced by Symbolism. >From 1909 Saryan turned to everyday life, taking as his subjects ancient sites untouched by civilization which bore the stamp of centuries of existence. Sowewhat generalizing reality, he captured the expressive outline of forms. His compositions were built up on a single plane through the equal distribution of large areas of color, whilst preserving the pure resonant color of Armenian manuscript illumination. Saryan's color is full of light. The contrasting yet harmonious combination of three or four main colors was used to create an expressive sense of the burning light of the sun, which seems to radiate from within the canvas. Light, and the resonant, ringing color which introduces wherefor the artist the eternal symbols of his homeland. Major Works; Poet at the Foot of Aragats, 1906 By the Well. Hot Day, 1908 Street. Afternoon. Constantinopole, 1910 Egyptian Masks, 1911 Night Landscape, 1911 Flowers of Kalaki, 1914 Date Palm, 1911