Gevorg Stepani Grigoryan The Portrait Artist
George Stepani Grigoryan (Giotto) (November 12, 1897 (November 24), Tbilissi – 1976, November 23, Yerevan), is one of the 20th century's few artists of the first half, whose creative world hero is an individual who has passed a difficult life path, has an indomitable will, and carries universal values and culture. That was in a period when it was more acceptable and popular to depict the life of the Soviet country with a bright and colourful, epic, and bio-heavy emphasis.
G. Grigoryan received a professional education at the painting and sculpture school of the Caucasian Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Tiflis (1916–1919, teachers: E. Tadevosyan, G. Grinevsky), then in the Higher Art and Technical Studios in Moscow (1921–1923, teachers: L. Popova, A. Vesni). Until 1962, he lived and created in his birthplace, later in Yerevan.
Both the centuries-old national culture and the European classics of the 20th century were important for the creation of an artist and the formation of an original manuscript. the plastic principles developed by representatives of new directions (Cézanists, Cubists). The artist's art is characterized by roughness, strict description, and dramatism, which he achieves through rigid compositional structure, laconic and strict drawing, and dark and heavy tones.
G. Grigoryan left quite a rich creative heritage, the most significant part of which is kept in the HAP and the branch gallery. In Grigoryan's studio museum, the themes and plots of the artist's interest are diverse, which he equally explored in his painting and graphic works. The artist mainly worked in series. For example, the "Old Tiflis" picture series is made up of Tiflis landscapes and still, lifes that displace childhood memories, portraits of famous citizens, and plot exploits that complete the original colour of the birthday. The series of portraits of famous Armenian and international writers, the artist's relatives, and friends dedicated to Komitas deserves special attention.
The end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s were the years of the artist's creative rise when he actively participated in the cultural life of Tiflis through exhibitions of Armenian and Georgian artists. "Stepan Shahumyan", 1926; "The Woman with a Fan", 1926; Requiem, The Death of the Leader", 1927; "Portrait of Manushaki", 1929; and "Still Life", 1929, were created in that period. The creative personality of the young artist was vividly demonstrated. That creative phase was followed by two decades of rejection and isolation in the art world, during which the artist continued to create with unbreakable will. The paintings of that period are full of dramatic emotions ("Motherhood", 1936), "The Peasant Woman with a Child", "Havlabart's Woman".
In the 1950s, the artist's art, accused of conforming to formalism and other Western artistic trends, began to be perceived and revalued in a new way. It is noteworthy that the works of the 1950s and 1960s (Dancing Quinton, 1971; Playing Cards on the Round Table, 1965; Keyboard and Swallow, 1965; Portrait of Marina, 1969) are dominated by a sense of organic, internal balance, which is expressed by a bright and multi-coloured colour scheme.
There are themes in the artist's work that he regularly touches upon, one of which is the greatest human tragedy: the Genocide. Among the works of this series are "Manushak", "Woman from Erzurum", "Lament for Komitas", 1974; Charents and Among the works of this series are "Manushak," "Woman from Erzurum," "Lament for Komitas," 1974; "Charents and Komitas," 1974; Farewell, and "Portrait of Komitas," 1965, which express grief, anxiety, inner turmoil, and anger. The theme of heavy mental feelings and reflections found its expression in the still lifes, made of painted accessories and books, worn-out household items, and objects with geometrically emphasized forms, resolved in dark and saturated colours.
The portrait is one of the favourite genres of the artist. His close and dear people, including the artist's wife, Diana Ukleba-Grigoryan, are in the works made directly from the source, from memory or imagination. G. Grigoryan's heroes are distinguished by their national profile, inner human dignity, and spiritual beauty (portraits of Katsakhyan, 1922; Yeghishe Charents, 1926; Samiko, 1936; Marjanyan, 1965; Marina, 1969; Diana, 1925; 1944). In the last period of his life, the artist created a series of portraits of prominent representatives of Armenian and world culture (Metsarents, Duryan, Sayat Novan, Tumanyan, Pirosmani, Balzac, Dante, 1960–1975), which is as if the artist's internal conversation with the intellectuals of previous generations was about the lasting, universal values of life.
After the artist's death, his apartment was transformed into G. Grigoryan's studio museum, which has been operating as a branch of the National Gallery of Armenia since 1979. In the cozy halls of the museum, 100 works by the artist are displayed, which create a comprehensive picture of one of the outstanding artists of our time.
