Pasadena – The Teqeyan Cultural Association, Los Angeles Chapter, will hold an exceptional art exhibit of the works of one of the foremost artists of Armenia – that of Edward Issabekian, August 29 and 30th.
The artist will be present at the exhibit, which will be held at the TCA Beshgetourian Center, 1901 N. Allen Avenue, Altadena. Opening reception is on Thursday, August 29 at 8 p.m. The exhibit will be open also on Friday, August 30, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The exhibit is dedicated to his 65th anniversary as an artist.
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The art of Saryan, Arakelian and Kojoyan occupied a prominent place in the annals of the Soviet Armenian painting and had great influence on the painters of the early Soviet period. The artists of the younger generation began to paint using mainly their philosophical ideas, principles, artistic manners and style. And only a few of them tried to find their own style and the ways of expression typical to it. Among these few the name of the People’s Artist Edward Issabekian must be mentioned in the first place, as his art is one of the most interesting phenomenon of our culture.
Issabekian’s art granted the public attention in the 1930’s thanks to his deep understanding of life, romanticism and boldness of style. In his early works (”At the Seaside” sketched 1937, ”Self-Portrait” 1939, ”Kidnapping” 1941) is obvious the influence of the 19th century French romantic painters, especially that of Gericault and Delacroix. Later these influences together with the experience of many years and aesthetic views formed Issabekian the painter.
The portrait-composition ”The Gypsy with a Parrot” with its delicate combinations of color and spontaneity of perception is the typical example of the painter’s work of the early period.
Even a glimpse on Issabekian’s work is enough to see that the base of his art is the reality of human and objective world. Even for the sake of the highest artistic principles he doesn’t give up this reality. And even creating an allegoric picture he doesn’t lose his sense of realism. Realism is his main artistic credo. His works breathe with optimism and faith in man and humanity.
In the Soviet Armenian painting Issabekian’s art is distinguished by the exclusive multisidedness of his art: simple, delicate, lyrical sketches, complex, and psychological characters, large-sized canvases on patriotic historical themes, wonderful landscapes depicting the nature of his land. And typical to all these harmony of architectural monuments and the works precise design, vividness of color, commes are not only the result of his professional positional proportionality, real sense of voluskill, but also are inner needs, artistic principles for him.
Starting his career of a painter during the years of the Great Patriotic War, Issabekian created canvases breathing with high patriotic pathos (”The Red Army in an Armenian village” 1941, ”A Battle for the City” 1942, ”Tanya” 1942). Heroic romanticism, rich color gamut are typical to his works of this period.
The development of the historical subject in the Soviet Armenian painting lags behind the rest of the genres. But one must not forget to mention Issabekian’s merit in this field. His canvases bring forth moral and aesthetic, actual problems and give their solution. He praises the optimism of his own people and invincibility of its power. The same theme is repeated in different canvases each time finding a new expression and sounding (”David-Beck”1943, ”The Battle of Avarair” 1948, ”The revolt of Haghpat in 1903” 1955, ”An Answer to Hazkert” 1960). A special place in Issabekian’s art occupies the canvas ”An Answer to Hazkert”. It is the embodiment of the painter’s artistic conception. The long perspective of arches, the setting of a number of figures in space, the expressiveness and variety of gestures equally command admiration.
Issabekian is tightly connected with the modern art and always follows the changes of its development. In 1960-70s his art underwent some changes in the sphere of color and this period resulted in creation of a number of landscapes depicting his homeland.
In 1970s the art of Issabekian, his creative talent came to its culmination. The canvases of these years express all his love towards his native land and towards life. (”Artavazd and Cleopatra” 1980, ”Athletes while Training” 1978, ”Noah and his Sons” 1982).
A remarkable place in Issabekian’s art occupies landscapes. His landscapes give a complete portrait of his own land. Here the artist paints the part of his homeland he knows and loves best. Restrained color gamut is typical for these canvases. (”In the Gorge of Byourakan” 1956, ”A Scene from Garny” 1958, ”Khendzoresk” 1962, ”An Autumn tree” 1977, ”A Landscape: Bzhni” 1982).
He depicts his motherland, its colors, people, mountains, rivers. There is nothing of unusual interest in the subject matter: what makes it good is the sense of vast space created by the silhouettes of pink hills and high mountains against the blue sky. The language of Issabekian’s landscapes is clear and quite comprehensive to any Armenian as it is the expression and the result of an Armenian way of thinking, and Armenian soul.
The series ”Troubled Horses” reveals romantic nature of Issabekian-painter. In the history of painting the theme of horses was not once touched upon.
Issabekian is also a good master of graphics. Both his thick or light lines express the slightest nuances of ”man and nature” relation. Here he is the real follower of Saryan and Kojoyan. His works on book graphics are one of interesting pages in the Armenian art history. His graphics illustrations are maked from rich imagination and expressiveness. Indeed, illustrations to the books ”Vardanank” by Demirchian and ”Mekhitar Sparapet” by Khanzadian (1952, 1963) are distinguished for their originally.
Plastic expressiveness of lines, complex and dynamic metamorphosis in motion are the main features of his graphic works. The portrait of the painter’s wife, Arpenick Nalbandian, deserves attention for its ingenuity.
Issabekian’s love for his native land, his deep patriotism are always present in his paintings. He often remembers his native town, Igdir, and these memories are like a chain of sweet dreams, where everything is the same as many, many years ago. And in the age of seventy Issabekian tried to recreate on the canvas the world of his childhood, the city where he was born. The canvas ”Wedding Feast, From Koghb to Igdir” 1983 is a deeply lyrical composition. Memories of the sweet old days give an easy mood to the canvas, which is marked for its psychological and ethnographic exactness, deep lyricism. It is indeed a painting, novel about the lost homeland and love.
The artistic career of Issabekian is long and fruitfull in all its stages. Today’s reality, history of his own people, the nature of his native country are the main sources of his deeply national art. Together with the life of Armenian people, its historic past, Issabekian, being an artistic of modern times, expresses the urgent problems of his times in his works.