Grigor Khanjyan: Beyond Image

November 10, 2016 – February 19, 2017 The exhibition, Grigor Khanjyan: Beyond Image, is dedicated to the 90th birthday anniversary of the celebrated Armenian artist. Grigor Khanjyan’s (1926-2000) name is closely associated with the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, where the artist's famous monumental mural is located. Sketches from private collections and the artist’s family collection that have never been exhibited are included in the exhibition, representing three key areas of his work; book design and illustration, interior design (mainly of churches) and the monumental triptych mural at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.

The Cafesjian Center for the Arts presents essential layers of Grigor Khanjyan’s artistic legacy with which the public was not entirely familiar.  The exhibition, Grigor Khanjyan: Beyond Image, includes graphic sketches revealing the history of the artist’s creation of his famous monumental works. Grigor Khanjyan became one of the creators and leaders of the national narrative focused on new national and folkloric iconography and the ethno-modern direction in Soviet-Armenian art.

Grigor Khanjyan was born in 1926 in Yerevan. He graduated from Art College after Panos Terlemezyan in 1945 and from Yerevan Fine Arts Institute in 1951; Ara Bekaryan and Aduard Isabekyan were his professors. He began his creative career in 1915 and in 1953 he became a member of Arm. SSR Artists' Union and was elected a member of the Union’s governing body. Grigor Khanjyan became honorary painter of Arm. SSR in 1961 and was elected a corresponding member of Fine Arts Academy of USSR in 1963. He became Honorary Art Worker of Arm. SSR in 1963 and was elected a member of the governing body of the Artists’ Union of USSR. He became People's Painter of Arm. SSR in 1967, and in 1969 he was awarded with USSR state award for the illustration of the poem Unsilenceable Belfry by Paruyr Sevak. In 1973 the celebrated artist was elected a real member of Fine Arts Academy of USSR, and in 1973 he was elected a deputy of Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In 1982 he was elected a corresponding member of Arm. SSR Academy of Sciences and later became an academicion of the Academy. In 1983 he was awarded with the title People's Painter of USSR and in 1991 he became an honorary member of Fine Arts Academy of Russia. Khanjyan received awards, medals and rewards of Arm. SSR and Republic of Armenia. The artist died in Yerevan in 2000.

Exhibition Catalog