Minas Karapeti Avetisyan The Talented Artist
Minas Avetisyan was an Armenian painter born in the village of Jajur, Akhuryan region, Armenian SSR (now Shirak Marz), on July 20, 1928.
He was a famous Armenian painter and one of the most outstanding representatives of Armenian fine art in the second half of the 20th century. He started painting relatively late. As a teenager, he was obsessed with the art of Martiros Saryan. For the first time, he got acquainted with the zookeeper at the age of 18.
He received his aesthetic education at the Fine Arts Academy, named after Panos Terlemezyan (1947–1952). After studying for a year at the Yerevan State Art and Theater Institute, in 1953 he transferred to the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Leningrad, where he studied under A. Zaitsev and L. Khudyakov’s studio. He graduated in 1960 and returned to Yerevan. The supervisor of the diploma work was Boris Johanson.
Armenian miniatures and Italian Renaissance painting influenced Minas' artistic and aesthetic development during his studies in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
Minas created compositions reflecting the Armenian countryside and landscapes, as well as portraits, still lives, and murals. Minas' works are unique with their strong colour contrasts, which express bright, lyrical moods, sometimes with tragic accents. He addressed all areas of painting: painting, graphics, mural painting, stage painting, etc. Some of the famous paintings refer to the past of the Armenian people, especially the Armenian pogroms of 1915, about which the artist’s parents were also shocked. "The Road," created in 1965–1967, belongs to that period. memories of my parents", and the painting "On the Road to Der-Zor" (1964). The mature creative life of Minas lasted 15 years—from 1960 to 1975—during which he created about five hundred large and small canvases, approximately the same number of drawings, 20 large-scale murals, and more than a dozen ballet and theater designs.
His works
In 1962, he participated in the "Five Exhibition" (Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, Alexander Grigoryan, Arpenik Ghapantsyan, and Henrik Siravyan). Becomes a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Numerous specialists and visitors to the exhibition greatly appreciated his work. Avetisian’s method differs from the method of plein-air painting, which was once widespread in Armenian art. For him, working from nature was no more than a preliminary stage, and the main portion of the work on the canvas was done in his studio.
In 1968, he appeared in the cinema for the first time. Mikael Vardanov’s The Color of the Armenian Land in the film
In 1968, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the USSR.
In 1970, the "Sovetsky Khudozhnik" publishing house in Moscow published Henrik Igityan’s monograph "Minas Avetisyan".
The fire of the art gallery Minas and the KGB
On the night of January 1–2, 1972, a fire broke out in the artist’s studio, and all the works collected there were burned, including the works collected for the individual exhibition to be organized in Paris (about 300 works, of which 120 are paintings) and the personal archive (letters, etc.).
His death
On February 16, 1975, Minas was involved in a car accident in Yerevan. He died a few days later, on February 23. February 24 was considered the day of his death during the Soviet years.
