Martin

MARTIN PETROSYAN was born in Armenia in 1955. He studied drawing and painting at the Khachatur Abovian Pedagogical Institute. In 1982 he started working at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Martin participated in art exhibitions even as a student. From 1987 his work have been exhibited in Union of Soviet Republics shows on a regular basis. His works are on the permanent display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Yerevan, as well as in private collections in Armenia, the former Soviet Union, France, Canada, United States, Germany and Syria. Since 1999, Petrosyan has resided in Los Angeles.

Martin PetroSian

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Since its beginnings the Bunker group has devoted itself to a non-objective aesthetic, concentrating on form, color, and material for their inherent abilities to affect viewers not just aesthetically, but emotionally and intellectually. By practicing representational as well as abstract painting, Los Angeles-based Martin Petrosian would seem to run counter to Bunker’s precepts. But it’s far more complex than that, certainly with regard to his works included here. First, the earmarks of Petrosian’s abstract style – linear vivaciousness bordering on calligraphy, great variation in texture, muted palette – place it squarely within the movement’s overall characteristics. Second, Bunker came into being as an alternative to the fanciful treatment of the figure that predominated in Armenia at the time. Petrosian’s landscapes are as far removed from such playful surrealism as are his abstract works. The landscapes are rendered with the same active, brittle lines and quiet tonalities (if not the same degree of surface incident) that characterize his abstractions; the mood predominating in these views of fens and marshlands is similarly cool, nuanced, and withdrawn, even when displaying surrealist aspects themselves. Indeed, Petrosian is uniquely successful in blending abstract and representational aspects into odd, even troubling hybrids – a “third stream” between reality and “pure painting” -- whose very oddness ties them close to Bunker.

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reMaininG true to My PerSonal Code

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“To tell the truth", Martin Petrosian says, "I first wanted to be an athlete, a basketball player. Unfortunately, just before the entrance exams for the State Institute of Physical Culture and Sport, I broke my left arm and my application was denied. My second choice was a college specializing in ceramics. Studying there gave me a real taste for all the arts and why they matter – which inspired me to study art education at Yerevan Pedagogical University.” It was there that Martin met Kiki and Armen Hadjan, and the three became friends and rebels. “While other students were preparing ceramic vases, jugs, and small tables for their final exam in the commercial crafts course, we rebels made our creations purely as art. I created a ceramic panel with a crack in it because it looked good to me that way. The dean

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was mad at us for not following his instructions, but our teacher said, "Those three will become original artists!” Meanwhile Martin fell in love with the science and technology of art at the same time he was becoming interested in a broad spectrum of art styles and forms. “I couldn't consider myself a professional artist,” he says, “until I had thoroughly studied as many art materials as I could, their qualities, and secrets. I had this urge when I was a child, to learn everything from the inside out. It was like a code inscribed inside me. Learn everything connected with this matter, and then create the work.

“Only if you know the subtle nuances of color can you become a wizard," he jokes. “I tried a thousand different ways of using delicate, transparent watercolors and it became my favorite medium. Then my intuition spoke to me out of thin air and something magical happened on my papers and canvases. Later, when I invented techniques, I shared them with

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friends like Grigori Offenbach.” Martin's first artworks were very subtle. His surreal landscapes began to turn into abstracts and then into relief works with 3D effects. That's when art historian Heinrich Igityan, the former director of the Modern Art Museum of Yerevan, challenged him. “You guys do only abstract art. I bet it will be difficult for you to do realistic work." Martin took the bet. He told the director that creating realistic artwork for him would be as easy as “cracking sunflower seeds. I’ll create a new realistic work for you every week, if you buy them," he added with a smile. Martin won the bet and eventually Igityan began falling under the spell of his abstract works and acquired six of them for the Museum collection. In fact, Martin was the first of the Bunker Group artists to become part of the collection, to be widely recognized in Armenia and, after emigrating, in Los Angeles. In spite of that Martin likes to stay in the shade.

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“I am always trying to get out of the center when people make photos. I prefer to stand somewhere in the corner.” Asked why, Martin answers, “I don't know. How you can explain your own essence? Is it also a code inscribed at birth? Mine is that of a solitary wanderer who doesn't want to compete with anybody and doesn't set his bar high. He wants to stay simple, kind, and true. That's why I never envy someone else's success. I'm just happy for them.” Asked who inspired him, Martin said without hesitation, “It was Kiki who inspired us all to follow him into the reams of abstract art. It was our sponsor and collector Sergei Javadian who really cared about us and what we created. We gave Sergei a nickname, Kematar – 'the one who sacrificed himself for us,' as he used to say, half in jest, half in earnest. And

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he did so by putting our interests as artists even higher that his own. I had no contract with him. I just wanted to pay him back for his kindness and give my new paintings to him. “ Reflecting on whether it was easier to be an artist back in Armenia than it is here, Martin says, “Armenia is a small country where everyone knows you if you are a good artist. In the United States many of us get lost in the ocean of freelance artists. I learned a new way to be an artist here: creating minimalistic, monochrome mural art. But while I may have learned a new technique I am the same inside, remaining true to my personal code."

Interview by Larisa Pilinsky