Martiros Saryan is a great Armenian painter who, during his lifetime, became a classic of the national fine art of the Soviet era

Martiros Saryan (February 16, 1880 – May 5, 1972) is an outstanding Armenian artist of the 20th century, a prominent representative of Symbolism and Fauvism. He is best known for creating paintings in portrait and landscape genres. The biography of the master is closely connected with Yerevan, where he lived most of his life and was buried after his death.

Martiros Saryan is rightfully considered the greatest Armenian artist of the Soviet era. For many years he was active in public activities, and for services to national art he was repeatedly awarded state prizes, honorary titles, orders and medals of the USSR.

Biography

Martiros Saryan was born on February 16, 1880 into a wealthy family of intellectuals in the city of Nakhichevan, which today is part of Rostov-on-Don. The boy was fond of drawing since childhood. In 1897 he left for Moscow and was enrolled in the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

While still a student, Martiros visited Armenia for the first time and passionately fell in love with the historical homeland of his ancestors. Nevertheless, after graduating from college, he remained in Moscow, where he actively participated in the activities of a number of modernist art associations.

Later, Saryan made a long journey through the countries of the East. He traveled to Persia, Turkey and Egypt, made many sketches and painted dozens of colorful paintings in the style of Fauvism. The carefree life of the young artist was suddenly interrupted by a message about the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Shaken by the bloody events, Martiros immediately went to Yerevan and started helping the families of the refugees.

He experienced a severe mental shock and could no longer engage in art.

Friends persuaded him to leave Armenia for Georgia, where Saryan’s health gradually recovered. Here he met his future wife, an Armenian girl named Lusik Aghayan. In 1916, the couple got married, in this marriage Martiros subsequently had two sons.

The revolutionary events of 1917 found the artist in Tiflis, from where he and his wife soon moved to their native Nakhichevan. On the banks of the Don, he survived the troubled times of the Civil War, and soon after it ended, he received a personal invitation from the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of Armenia to move to Yerevan permanently.

In the summer of 1921, Martiros Saryan moved with his family to Transcaucasia and immediately became actively involved in social work. He took part in the creation of the republican society of artists, the museum of arts and the school of painting, and also developed the design of the coat of arms of the Armenian SSR and the design of the folk theater curtain. In those years, the artist often traveled to the regions of the republic and created many charming rural landscapes.

Exhibitions

In 1925, for the first time in the era of Soviet power, Martiros’ paintings were presented at a prestigious Moscow exhibition, where they received high marks from critics. Moreover, the artist was granted the right to travel abroad, which he immediately took advantage of. Saryan and his family went to Paris and lived in the French capital until 1928, creating dozens of paintings in various genres.

However, in the mid-30s of the last century, the Soviet authorities decided to take art under full control and completely eradicate the freedom of creativity. A very difficult period began in the life of the master, he was often accused of formalism and lack of ideas. But, fortunately, the repression did not affect his loved ones. Under these conditions, the artist practically stopped painting and switched to illustrating books, as well as developing scenery for theatrical productions.

Only after the death of Stalin, Martiros Saryan was able to breathe a sigh of relief and turn to painting again. Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, he was recognized as a living classic of national art and received many high awards. Despite his venerable age, the master continued to create until old age, and painted his last painting a month before his death at the age of 92. Having lived a very long and eventful life, Martiros Saryan died on May 5, 1972 in his Yerevan studio house.