Unidentified watercolours

[bell-the-cat]

In Yerevan in the 1990s I bought some watercolours depicting khachkars. I don't know the name of the artist. There is a short pen-writen inscription on each watercolour. I think the first part of it might describe the subject and the word after the 1992 date might be the artist's name - but I can't decipher it. Can anyone?

Three of the inscriptions

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

Here is a complete view of two of them.





They seem similar in style (especially in the sky) to some of Grigor Avagyan's paintings http://armgallery.com/exhibition-of-grigor-avagyan/

[TomServo]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

It reads "Grigor Avagyan, 1992, Yerevan"

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

Thanks. So they are by Avagyan!
Now that I look at the writing again (or, rather, look carefully at the scans rather than just at the paintings) I see it is clearly Yerevan after the date and the words before the date are identical in all of them.

[TomServo]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

bell, do you know the story behind this painting?

It is a painting by Vardges Surenyants called "Desecrated Shrine" (1895). Perhaps an artistic response to the Hamidian massacres?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

It is a painting by Vardges Surenyants called "Desecrated Shrine" (1895). Perhaps an artistic response to the Hamidian massacres?

Yes you are right. There is a short passage about that painting in a German book I've got that says as much - will need to scan it to properly machine translate it. But the painting actually depicts parts of the interior of Hovhanavank monastery, which was inside Russian controlled territory in 1895.

[TomServo]

Re: Unidentified watercolours

Thanks, bell. The Hamidian massacres haven't received as much scholarly scrutiny as 1915; there's probably a wealth of primary material related to it and the Adana massacre but they aren't studied as much as 1915.