Kochar: Challenging The Time by Cafesjian Center for the Arts

Kochar

Challenging The Time

Cafesjian Center for the Arts Yerevan, 2014 3

This catalog is published on the occasion of the exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, which commemorated the 115th birthday anniversary of the prominent Armenian artist Ervand Kochar. Author of the catalog: Astghik Marabyan, art historian Associate Director for Public Programs Cafesjian Center for the Arts Translation from Armenian into English: Hrant-Harry Gadarigian Catalog design: NanĂŠ Toumanian Printed in Antenor Printing House Yerevan, Armenia ÂŠ2014. Cafesjian Center for the Arts All rights reserved. No part of the content of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. Cover: Harmony 1930 Oil on canvas 73 x 54 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar

Contents Acknowledgments

Vahagn Marabyan Acting Executive Director Cafesjian Center for the Arts

Lala Martirosyan-Kochar Director Ervand Kochar Museum

Challenging the Time Astghik Marabyan Associate Director for Public Programs Cafesjian Center for the Arts

Works in the Exhibition

Chronology of Life and Work

Works in the Catalog

Acknowledgments

The exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, presents a selection of works from the Ervand Kochar Museum and from private collections, including unique pieces from the Maestro’s Paris and Yerevan periods. The artist’s thoughts about art and his works presented in the scope of the exhibition reveal anew the character of Kochar - as a man and artist. We are convinced that this important initiative, realized collaboratively with the Ervand Kochar Museum, will further enhance the international recognition of Kochar’s art, at the same time acknowledging nationally the rewarding work of the Ervand Kochar Museum for this exhibition and the future. I extend my profound gratitude to all those whose dedication and tireless efforts made the exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, a reality at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. We are grateful to Mrs. Kathleen Cafesjian Baradaran, who continues to lead us to fulfil the vision of Gerard L. Cafesjian, which became a guiding light for many people in Armenia and the Diaspora. I convey special thanks to Mrs. Hasmik Poghosyan, the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, for supporting the realization of this exhibition.

The opening of the exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, on September 26, 2014, dedicated to the 115th birthday anniversary of the prominent Armenian artist Ervand Kochar, is a significant event for the Cafesjian Center for the Arts (CCA). The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Ervand Kochar Museum as part of CCA’s Inter-Museum Cooperation program launched in 2012. Adhering to its mission of “bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture to the world”, in organizing such joint exhibitions CCA aims to create a platform for inter-museum cooperation, bringing the Armenian public into closer contact with exhibited art and fostering international recognition for Armenian museums.

I congratulate and express my sincere gratitude to the staff of the Ervand Kochar Museum, namely its Director Mrs. Lala Kochar, whose invaluable contribution and dedicated cooperation helped to carry out this important initiative. We profoundly thank all collectors, who graciously and willingly enriched this exhibition with unique works from Kochar’s Paris period. I also thank the entire staff of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts for their unstinting commitment to the Cafesjian legacy and for making this exhibition a success. I am convinced that the exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, will give an opportunity to newly communicate with the Maestro’s multilayered works, and with that inspiration recontemplate time, space and life.

Vahagn Marabyan Acting Executive Director Cafesjian Center for the Arts 8

For every individual, nation, and humankind in general, there are values that are unalterable and eternal. Each new scrutiny of those values questions and changes the world, constructing a new reality. Kochar’s art arising from the basis of his times, addresses that reality with the gaze of a man looking for new answers. Kochar’s life stands as a token for all of us. He was a symbol of an indomitable and unbreakable citizen and intellectual… of a man who dared to challenge time and become immortal. He was a genius who, in the depths of a tragic social system bent on exterminating the ‘national’, did his utmost to promote the rebirth and preservation of national memory and spirit. It has been thirty years now that Kochar is no longer with us, but his masterpieces continue their victorious march against time, meriting international awards. The Cafesjian Museum Foundation, by initiating and serving as the main organizer of the exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, has presented us with a truly wonderful gift on the Maestro’s 115th birthday anniversary. The Cafesjian Center for the Arts has carved out a unique place in the cultural life of Armenia. This unique Arts Center of international significance fulfils a very important role, uniting the cultural community – museums, artists, collectors and art lovers, asserting the vital mission museums have in the context of world history. I hope this exhibition will serve as a new incentive in our cultural life to comprehend Kochar’s concepts and affords the public yet another opportunity to get to know the works of its genius son. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, this exhibition is more timely than ever, given that the dedication, talent and diligence manifested by Kochar is so crucial for the strengthening of our statehood, realized after centuries of longing. I wish to thank the Cafesjian Museum Foundation for its continued cooperation. I am convinced that cultural events like this keep the spirit of the people alive.

Lala Martirosyan-Kochar Director Ervand Kochar Museum 9

process of Kochar’s avant-gardism. The young artist was already familiar with the innovative outbursts of artistic movements of the era during his years in Tiflis and Moscow, which was reflected in his work and thoughts of that period. By this time, Kochar had already begun to define his aesthetic and formalist ideas, in which the artist developed his existential outlook on a mutual correlation of the essence of art, the beauty and the sensual, the form and the spirit. Kochar’s travel to Constantinople and later to Italy, where the artist became fully acquainted with classical art and the works of Italian renaissance masters and profoundly studied Armenian miniature art at the Mkhitarist Congregation in Venice, was certainly of utmost importance for Kochar’s creative development. It is here that the basis of the artist’s ideological and aesthetic outlook was completed, on which Kochar’s formalist mindset was manifested in the fertile Parisian environment.

Challenging the Time

Since the first months, he boldly threw himself into the complex and alluring artistic environment of Paris. Alongside prominent artists of the day, he participated in the exhibitions of the Salon Des Indépendants and other innovative movements of the period. He gave one-man exhibitions and published articles and programs. In a short time, the name Kochar appeared in the leading cultural periodicals of the day, and his works elicited intense discussion and debate. Critics of the period regarded his art as “deeply cognitive and heretofore unmatched in terms of execution”, “innovative”, “avant-garde and the most audacious”.

Paris, Paris... how many hearts aflame, souls burnt with art turn to ash on your sacrificial altar... no one has captured your heart, rather, only the most fortunate once have merited your enchanting smile that promises immortality... Kochar

Regarding art as the reflection of the ideal of its time, Kochar shaped his vision of the “ideal” which, on one hand, reflected the mindsets of his era with the expressive forms of that period and, on the other hand he received his ideological and formative ideas from ancient culture and philosophical thought, as well as from medieval Armenian art, especially miniature painting.

Kochar arrived in Paris in 1923, when the era’s artistic thought and spirit, in post-war transitional death throes, experienced serious upheavals and developments. The twenty-four-year-old artist, already recognized as a leading and talented artist in Tiflis, was in Paris to connect with those transformations. However, the Armenian artist was destined to bond with the revolutionary thought of leading art figures and to stand atop the roots of avant-garde art.

In 1926, in a conversation with the Armenian writer and public figure Vazgen Shoushanyan, Kochar noted: “The greatest success of Armenian artists will be to resurrect the old art of our painting. What’s important is to resuscitate that lost but very valuable art, to make it contemporary and perfect in the light of modern art. Our old art has elements striving towards contemporary painting and especially miniature painting extremely approaches the art we seek.”

Developing in the swing of innovative new directions and assuming their direct formative and ideological influence, his art, nevertheless, rose from a different plane of thought that predetermined the unique

It is not by chance that the artist’s appearance in Paris is ushered in by three works linked to Christian ideology – Resurrection (1st plate), Transfiguration and Vision (2nd plate). In these works, the artist unveils

religious subjects as the eternal transitional phase between life and death, the spiritual and the material, light and dark. By splitting and unfolding the beings into their archetypes, Kochar “revived the mindsets and fundamental problems of the period”, with a strong formalist sense of colors, forms and metaphoric images, reflecting the spirit of the era in the metaphysical world. Nevertheless, Kochar’s imagery did not flow from dreams and the subconscious. Kochar’s inspiration was the reality he depicted on the level of ideas. By expressing the tendencies and problems of the era in the context of cultural interaction, rather than rejection, Kochar enciphered those ideological layers, which the artist himself embodied – his era, the spirit of time; the national, the spirit of identity; and the ancient Greek art, the spirit of civilization. Observing the development of art in the “linkage of the evolution of world art”, Kochar expressed “the clash between the earthly and the cosmic” at the center of which was the machine, the embodiment of the spirit of the era that brought a new dimension of time and space. In his numerous works, he revived the antique Greek hero, as the embodiment of absolute beauty, in a “mechanical” space that contained a new ideal of time. The reconstruction of time and space became the guiding vision of Kochar’s art.

Paris was promising immortality... Providence, however, defined another setting of space and time for Kochar. In 1936 the artist returned to his birthplace with a mission to spread and establish the new tendencies of Parisian art. However, in a totalitarian regime, Kochar’s progressive and innovative ideas were viewed as “anti-Soviet and anti-revolutionary” and the ‘iron curtain’ closed before him permanently. Liberating the national identity became Kochar’s new challenge. “It is necessary to shake off the ashes of time from our inflamed heroes and incite the eternal flame of our national self-consciousness and freedom.” This became the new message of Kochar’s avant-gardism. Kochar, who grew to be the symbol of the avant-garde, the new and freedom in his native land, revived the tradition of struggle and national identity in his monumental sculptures Davit of Sassoun and Vardan Mamikonyan. The Maestro affirmed that the manifestation of a genius is a challenge to the Time, whose prophetic visions liberate the spirit of the era.

Astghik Marabyan art historian

In a letter to Kochar in 1931, Leonce Rosenberg, an influential Paris art patron of the first half of the 20th century, a famous collector and publisher, and important supporter of modern art, wrote: “Dear Mr. Kochar, The idea of time and space, your primary subject of mental engagement, is also in the focus of certain modern artists, for example, Picasso, Picabia, Léger, Valmier, Herbin. They, however, are content with merely giving importance to space, while You, You strive to depict the space.” Remaining loyal to the means of visual arts, Kochar, for whom “form was just a shell beyond which one must see the internal structure, the internal movement”, defined a new correlation of space, time and movement. Movement, the century’s mechanical-borne spirit, became the vision of the artist that promised new horizons of space. Kochar’s liberating gesture broke down the frame. Just as the achievements of technology and science reached the Universe and allowed humans to overcome earth’s gravity, Kochar’s spatial art also cut the boundaries of the frame and established the painting in free space. Kochar overcame time. 11

Works in the Exhibition

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Resurrectionâ&#x20AC;? is the eternal motion between life and death expressed by two triangles joined from the reverse side, of which one descends from life to death, and the other rises from death to life. The same correlation exists in shades of color. The upper colors change into a neutral grey, the grey of death, when reaching the bottom. This also holds true for shapes that are masked â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they change and take the shape of skeleton to the extent that they approach the juncture of death. Ervand Kochar, 1923

Resurrection 1923 Oil on canvas 92 x 63 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum 15

Vision: Christ and Mary Magdalene 1924 Oil on canvas 130 x 81 cm On loan from a Private Collection 16

I did not create the work “Christ and Magdalena” to convey a subject. I did not choose shapes or colors. I gave preference to light and shadow, the balance of body and soul that derive from one another and neutralize each other. I attempted to portray my vision, to turn it into a solid integrity, to search for a basis on which it would be possible to weave that image. This is how “Christ and Magdalena” was born. Thus, the subject is my interpretation of shapes and colors. Ervand Kochar, 1923

The Man with a Pipe 1925 Pencil on paper 24 x 17.6 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum 18

Composition 1927 Watercolor on paper 25.5 x 11 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Composition with a Cigar 1926 Chinese ink and watercolor on paper 17 x 11 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum 19

First Sin 1927 Painting in Space Oil on metal 47x 67 x 33 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Painting in space slits the frame. It crushes conditional boundaries, becoming a live organism and acquiring an independent life. The aspiration to express oneself spatially, which thanks to Kochar works found a more contemporary and finalized style, had already appeared in the works of Italian futurists, Gris and Picasso. Their efforts to portray an isolated theme in an imaginary conditional space, attests to their hidden desire to break the visual inhibitions. In this case, at least, Kochar achieves this desire. Without applying innovative forms of new sculpture /it is impossible to confuse his works with engraved decorated volumes on four sides/ he releases painting relocating the center of its weight. The work of the young Armenian painter is a unique embodiment of his ability to see the Universe. Breaking with the laws of classical trinity, Kochar instills a new relationship between the concept of Time and Space. Valdemar George, Kochar and Spatial Painting, 1966

Painting in Space 1929 Oil on wood Height: 96 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Many of Kocharâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works with their stylized imagery have a correlation with Armenian animalistic letters. The typical examples are the graphic works executed with the technique of pressure. Annotation by the author. A.M.

The Girl and the Fox 1930 Gouache on cardboard 42 x 33 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Composition 1930 Gouache on wax paper, pressure 18.5 x 24 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

Composition: Fish 1930 Pressure on paper 25 x 32 cm On loan from a Private Collection 26

Still Life with Fish 1931 Oil on wood 22 x 27 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Harmony 1930 Oil on canvas 73 x 54 cm, On loan from the Ervand Kochar 28

Embrace 1930 Pressure on paper 38.5 x 32 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Composition 1929 Gouache on cardboard, mixed media 34 x 27.5 cm On loan from a Private Collection 30

Rebellion 1930 Gouache on paper 70 x 50 cm On loan from a Private Collection 31

The Kneeler 1933 Pencil on paper 44.7 x 35.2 cm On loan from a Private Collection 32

Composition 1930 Chinese ink on cardboard 33 x 11.5 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

The work “Composition with a Key“ is one of Kochar’s interesting religious-themed works which depicts Adam and Eve, born from his rib, who have tasted the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Above their heads they bear the tail of the forbidden fruit. Adam is holding fast the key of knowledge of good and evil. Annotation by the author. A.M.

Composition with a Key 1930 Chinese ink and watercolor on paper 47.4 x 31 cm On loan from a Private Collection 35

Head Drawing 1925 Chinese ink on paper 27 x 16.7 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Head Drawing 1925 Ink on paper 25.5 x 16.3 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

Head Drawing 1933 Chinese ink on paper 19.2 x 15.2 cm On loan from a Private Collection 39

The Frenzied Mobs 1933 Chinese ink on paper 22.8 x 19.4 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

Head Drawing 1925 Chinese ink on paper 15 x 18 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

Head Sculpture 1933 Bronze 45 x 42 x 22 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum

Our epoch is a century of great acts of valor and discoveries. For the first time of his existence, man has been freed himself from the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gravitational pull, which had nailed him down. He penetrated into the Universe. Man was able to split the atom... but has still not been able to make men happy. The secret of happiness remains undiscovered. ...But the person who is able to distinguish the pearly melody of the flute in an inhuman din of the big city, that person will be happy for a moment because, for that moment, he will be detached from the big machine, that is the city, and will become human â&#x20AC;&#x201C; he will find himself anew. Ervand Kochar, 1967

Biblical David 1953 Bronze 47 x 37 x 27 cm On loan from a Private Collection 44

Erebuni-Yerevan 1968 Painting in Space Oil on aluminium 121 x 51 x 27 cm On loan from a Private Collection 47

Images 1974-1975 Painting in Space Oil on metal 137 x 50 x 43 x 38 cm On loan from a Private Collection

Composition 1959 Gouache, watercolor and pencil on cardboard 25 x 21 cm On loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum 50

Ecstasy 1960 Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm On loan from a Private Collection 51

The Disaster of War 1962 Oil on canvas 290 x 203 cm On loan from a Private Collection 53

In classical Greek tragedies, the author includes a chorus and the choragus - the chorus leader, through which he directly expresses his thoughts, peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts. This image of the woman proclaims that war is a tragedy of human passions, the stigma of mankind, where all lose. Ervand Kochar, 1965

Chronology of Life and Work

1899 1909 - 1918

Ervand Kocharian (Kochar) was born in Tbilisi on June 15 to the family of Simon Kocharian (1866-1933) of Shushi and Pheocla Martirosian (1873-1951). Studies at Nersissian School, at the same time attends the Arts School of the Caucasus Association for Promoting Fine Arts (Schmerling School).

1918 - 1919

Studies at Moscow Second State Free Fine Arts Studios, P. Konchalovsky’s studio.

1919 - 1921

Teaches painting at Tiflis high schools.

1919 - 1920

Participates in Second and Third Autumn Exhibitions and the exhibition, Small Circle “Малый круг”, organized by the Association of Georgian Artists (Tiflis).

1921

Receives a certificate of the State Higher Arts and Technical Studios Professor.

1922

In April leaves for abroad, Constantinople, where opens a one-man show on June 14. In November arrives in Venice, the Mkhitarist Congregation, teaches at Mourad-Raphaelyan College, creates the busts of Cardinal La Fontaine, Father Kyureghian, the poet Avetik Isahakian, studies the rich collection of the Congregation’s old Armenian miniature art. Visits museums of Padua, Rome and Florence.

1923

In summer settles down in Paris. Kochar’s first one-man show in Paris opens in the “Societe des Savants” gallery of the “Apaga” (Future) newspaper.

1924

Participates in the exhibitions, Salon des Independants and Salon d’Automne. Articles praising him by prominent art critics are published in periodicals on modern art.

1925

Marries Vardeni in January. Participates in the international exhibition, L’art d’Aujourd’hui. An admiring article by Andre Pascal- Levi was published in the “Les Artistes d’Aujourd’hui” (“Artists of Today”) magazine. A one-man show of Kochar’s paintings and graphic works opens in “La Sacre du Printemp” Gallery. Catalogue preface by Waldemar George. The exhibition was echoed by “Revue du vrai et du beau”, “Les Artistes d’Aujourd’hui”, “La Revue Moderne” magazines and other periodicals.

1927

Works as a designer in SAMARA ceramics factory.

1928

In autumn Kochar’s wife, Vardeni, dies from tuberculosis.

Les Peintures dans l’espace de Kotchar (“Kochar’s Painting in Space”) a one-man show opens in “Van Leer” Gallery.

1929

Kochar presents works of the “Painting in Space” series at the international exhibition, Panorama de L’art Contemporain, organized in “BONAPART” Publishers. Starts collaborating with Leonce Rosenberg, a well-known patron and connoisseur of modern art, Director of L’Effort Moderne Art Gallery.

1930

In January marries Meline Ohanian. Participates in the exhibition, Confrontation, organized by REGAIN at Fenetre Ouverte Gallery The exhibition, Works of Leger, Metzinger, Severini, Viollier and Kochar’s Paintings in Space, opens in Leicester Galleries, London.

1932 1934 1935

Participates in the exhibition, Exposition d’oeuvres Cubites, Surrealistes et Abstraites (“Cubist, Surrealistic and Abstract Works”) at Leonce Rosenberg’s “L’Effort Moderne” Gallery, which also featured the works of Braque, Metzinger, de Chirico, Gris, Picabia, Czaky, Leger, Ernst, Herbin and others. The one-man show, Kotchar – Peintures, Sculptures, Dessins, opens in “Galerie Vignon”. Maurice Raynal, Maximilien Gauthier and others review the exhibition. Participates in the exhibition, Les Artistes Musicalistes. Organizer: Henry Valencie. In July publishes the “MESSAGE”, where Kochar presents his ideas on “Painting in Space” for the first time. Participates in the exhibition, Le Premiere Salon de l’Art Mural.

1936

With many of the greatest artists of the time signs the “The Dimensionist Manifesto”, the ideas of which had already been expressed in his works. In May repatriates to the USSR. His application on joining Georgia’s Union of Artists is rejected. In autumn Kochar moves to Yerevan.

1937 1939

On October 2 an article, “Let’s Throw the Enemies of the People out of the Front of Fine Arts” is published: Kochar is accused of “anti-Soviet propaganda and anti-revolutionary activities”. Within the framework of the celebrations of the thousandth anniversary of “David of Sassoun”, the Armenian national epic poem, the Russian language academy edition comes out with Kochar’s illustrations. Editor and publisher: Academician Hovsep Orbeli. 57

Kochar creates the first version of the equestrian monument David of Sassoun which was destroyed barbarously during the days following his arrest in 1941.

1941 - 1943 1946 1955 - 1966

Arrested on 22 June. Was released in August 1943, due to the intervention of Karo Halabian and Anastas Mikoian, his friends from Nersissian School. Marries Manik Mkrtchian. A movement starts in Paris aimed at inviting Kochar to France and organizing exhibitions of Kochar’s works created during the Soviet period. For this purpose, a number of prominent figures of French culture sign a petition. Eagle of Zvartnots, a landmark and memorial monument (bronze), is placed on the road to Zvartnots Temple.

1959 1965 1966 1969

The equestrian monument David of Sassoun (wrought copper) is placed in Yerevan Railway Station Square. Thirty years after returning to homeland, Kochar’s one-man show opens for the first time. A one-man show, Kochar et la peinture dans l’espace, opens at “Percier” Gallery in Paris, without the artist and his works of the post-Paris period. The catalogue, “Kochar and Painting in Space” by Waldemar George is published. The statue of Komitas (wrought coppper) is placed in Etchmiadzin.

1971

Kochar’s second one-man show opens in Yerevan.

1972

The album “Ervand Kochar” by Henrik Igityan is published. The sculpture, The Muse of Cybernetics (wrought copper), is placed in the yard of the Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute.

1973 - 1974

A one-man show opens in the Museum of Eastern Peoples in Moscow. One-man shows open in Baku and Tbilisi.

1975 1976 1978 58

The equestrian monument Vartan Mamikonian (wrought copper) is placed in Yerevan. By the Decree of the USSR Supreme Council, Kochar is awarded the title of the People’s Artist of the Soviet Union. A one-man show of Kochar’s graphic works opens in Yerevan.

1979

Dies on January 22 in Yerevan.

1980

On June 6 an exhibition of Kochar’s works opens in the Artists’ Union of Armenia.

1984

Ervand Kochar Museum opens in Yerevan on June 22.

1989 1990 - 1991 1997 1998 - 1999

An exhibition dedicated to Kochar’s 90th birthday anniversary opens in Paris. Organizers: K. Pasmajian Gallery, Ervand Kochar Museum. Kochar’s Painting in Space from Paris Pompidou Centre is exhibited at the exhibition, Antiguitat/Modernitat en l’Art del Segle XX, organized by “Fundació Joan Miró I Olimpiada Cultural’’ in Barcelona. Main organaizer: Gladys Fabre. UNESCO passes a decision to celebrate Kochar’s centenary under its auspices, placing his name on the list of “Outstanding Dates”. Kochar’s Painting in Space from Paris Pompidou Centre is exhibited at the international travelling exhibition, Forjar el Espacio. La Escultura Forjada en el Siglo XX (the Major Canary Islands, Valencia and Kale). Christian Perazone publishes an article on Kochar in the trilingual catalogue.

1999 2000 2003

Ararat Aghasyan’s monograph “Kochar” is published (in Russian). Henrik Igityan’s “Ervand Kochar” album is published. A four-time magnified bronze statue of the sculpture Melancholy of the 20th Century is placed in front of the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (ACCEA – NPAK).

2007

The book “You and Me” by Kochar is published.

2008

Artur Hakobyan’s book “Kochar’s Graphic Art” is published (in Russian).

2009

A five-time magnified bronze statue of Kochar’s Biblical David is placed in the yard of the National Assembly, Yerevan.

2010

On June 4-20 a jubilee exhibition, I Rely on Time, dedicated to Kochar’s 110th birthday anniversary opens in the Artist’s Union of Armenia. In the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (15.09 – 15.11) opens the exhibition, Two Colors of the Rainbow – Two Destinies Reflection..., including Kochar’s two works from the series “Painting in Space”. “Ervand Kochar 1899 – 1979. Bibliography (1918 - 2009)“ is published. 59

2011

Enlarged copy of Kochar’s work Erebouni-Yerevan is installed in the foyer of the new building of Matenadaran. In April Kochar’s Painting in Space First Sin (1927) is exhibited at the National Gallery of Armenia. In July Kochar’s ten works are exhibited in the exhibition, Dali & Surrealists, National Gallery of Armenia.

2012

In April, at the exhibition, ArtMonaco-Expo, sponsored by the royal family of Monaco, the Painting in Space First Sin (1927) is awarded with the main prize “Prix de l’Excellence” in nomination of “Baroque” as a work having considerable influence on development of the 20th century art. An exhibition, Diaspora of the Armenian Book 1512-2012, opens (12.06-09.09) at Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam Library, which included Kochar’s Voskan Erevantsi (1946) and the Painting in Space Erebouni-Yerevan (1968).

2013

An exhibition, Modernités Plurielles 1905- 1970 opens in October at Modern Art Museum (Centre Georges Pompidou) in Paris which included Kochar’s painting Eastern Women (1926). “In Ervand Kochar’s Space” Album by Ararat Aghasyan’s is published.

2014

“You and Me” by Ervand Kochar is published in Russian. The exhibition, Kochar: Challenging the Time, opens in the Cafesjian Center for the Arts commemorating the artist’s 115th birthday anniversary.

Works in the Catalog

Resurrection, 1923, oil on canvas, 92 x 63 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Vision: Christ and Mary Magdalene, 1924, oil on canvas, 130 x 81 cm, on loan from a Private Collection The Man with a Pipe, 1925, pencil on paper, 24 x 17.6 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Composition with a Cigar, 1926, Chinese ink and watercolor on paper, 17 x 11 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Composition, 1927, watercolor on paper, 25.5 x 11 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum First Sin, 1927, Painting in Space, oil on metal, 47x 67 x 33 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Painting in Space, 1929, oil on wood, height: 96 cm, on loan from a Private Collection The Girl and the Fox, 1930, gouache on cardboard, 42 x 33 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Composition, 1930, gouache on wax paper, pressure, 18.5 x 24 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Composition: Fish, 1930, pressure on paper, 25 x 32 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Still Life with Fish, 1931, oil on wood, 22 x 27 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Harmony, 1930, oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Embrace, 1930, pressure on paper, 38.5 x 32 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Composition, 1929, gouache on cardboard, mixed media, 34 x 27.5 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Rebellion, 1930, gouache on paper, 70 x 50 cm, on loan from a Private Collection The Kneeler, 1933, pencil on paper, 44.7 x 35.2 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Composition, 1930, Chinese ink on cardboard, 33 x 11.5 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Composition with a Key, 1930, Chinese ink and watercolor on paper, 47.4 x 31 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Head Drawing, 1925, Chinese ink on paper, 27 x 16.7 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Head Drawing, 1925, ink on paper, 25.5 x 16.3 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Head Drawing, 1933, Chinese ink on paper, 19.2 x 15.2 cm, on loan from a Private Collection The Frenzied Mobs, 1933, Chinese ink on paper, 22.8 x 19.4 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Head Drawing, 1925, Chinese ink on paper, 15 x 18 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Head Sculpture, 1933, bronze, 45 x 42 x 22 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Biblical David, 1953, bronze, 47 x 37 x 27 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Erebuni-Yerevan, 1968, Painting in Space, oil on aluminium, 121 x 51 x 27 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Images, 1974-1975, Painting in Space, oil on metal, 137 x 50 x 43 x 38 cm, on loan from a Private Collection Composition, 1959, gouache, watercolor and pencil on cardboard, 25 x 21 cm, on loan from the Ervand Kochar Museum Ecstasy, 1960, oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm, on loan from a Private Collection The Disaster of War, 1962, oil on canvas, 290 x 203 cm, on loan from a Private Collection 63

Art is an unfinished bridge, one foot of which is based on life, and the other one is stretched out to infinity... Each Genius aspires to find the second foot... and so it continues endlessly. For this art is an everlasting history of the mankindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest aspirations... Ervand Kochar

Cafesjian Center for the Arts Yerevan, 2014 68