Martiros Saryan House-Museum will participate in the major events dedicated to “The European Heritage Days” in Armenia mapped out on 1 and 2 October.
The museum highlights:

Literary-Music Evening, titled “Mirtiros Saryan’s Literary Milieu”.
The audience will be acquainted with Saryan’s wide connections with the “Silver Age” Russian poets and with his contemporaries - Armenian and foreign authors.
The actors of Russian Drama Theatre will recite to the audience the poetry of Maria Petrovykh, Vera Zviaghintseva, Rasul Gamzatov, Natalia Konchalovskaya and others, dedicated to Saryan.
Satyan’s favorite music will be performed.

The soiree will take place on 1 October at 14.00. in M.Saryan House-Museum, at the address:
M.Saryan St, 3

The next day – on 2 October, at 14.00  Martiros Saryan’s famous landscapes’ slide show
played in by Aram Khachaturian’s music will take place.

The musicologist, the Conservatory professor Araksi Saryan will give a talk on “Saryan- Khachaturian”.

On July 26, the President of Armenia Serge Sargsyan accompanied by Armenia Minister of Culture - Hasmik Pogossyan visited the Martiros Saryan House-Museum in Yerevan.

The distinguished guests looked round a newly opened exhibition entitled “Female images in Saryan’s art” and the museum’s permanent exposition. On becoming familiar with the problems facing the museum nowadays namely the absence of a technically equipped store room, the need of additional display space and so essential for the museum modern infrastructure, Mr.President gave due instructions to the Minister of Culture – Hasmik Pogossyan and to the Chief Architect of Yerevan city - Narek Sarkyssyan as to the reconstruction, repairs and modernization of the Martiros Saryan House-Museum.
Apparently already at the beginning of 2012 the Martiros Saryan House- Museum will stop functioning in view of its capital repairs.

25 pictorial and 20 grafic portraits from the M.Sarian House-Museum collection, the artist's family collection and also from the funds of the National Gallery of Armenia and the Charents Museum of Literature and Art are displayed at the exhibition.

According to the memorandum of “ Russia’s Unknown Orient” the exhibition is about the visual art that was made at the end of the 19th and early 20th century by Russian artists such as Vereschchagin and Polenov who took the countries that lie south of Russia as their subject. Their work at the exhibition is juxtaposed to the art that was made in the countries such as Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan (in other words the Near East) in the same period but also at the turn of the 20th century.
Whereas the works of Vereshchagin and Polenov could be regarded as travel documents to exotic countries of the Near East, the art of such artists as Saryan show a surprising similarity with certain aspects of European art of the end of the 19th century, but moreover of the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time their work is completely original and will be an eye-opener to Dutch and European visitor.
Armenia sent for the exhibition in Groningen the 8 paintings from the Martiros Saryan House-Museum and the 5 paintings of the National Gallery of Armenia – one by Saryan and also the works by Sureniants, Polenov, Sharbabchyan and one canvas painted by an unknown painter of the 19th century.

The exhibition displays paintings, watercolors and drawings executed by the painter starting from 1906. The paintings ‘Constantinople. Dogs.’ (1910), ‘Date-Palm. Egypt.’(1911), executed by M.S.Saryan during his creative journey around the Middle East – Turkey, Egypt and Persia are being exhibited; also the portraits of people, congenial to the artist – such as Anna Akhmatova, the actor N.D.Mordvinov, armenian actor – Khachatur Esayan, still-lifes , executed over the period of 1930-1950, sketches of 1950-1960. M. S. Saryan worked a lot at the designing of theatre performances: in the State Theatre of Armenia, in Yerevan Opera theatre, in early 1930th – in Moscow Musical theatre after K.S.Stanislavski and V.I.NBemirovich-Danchenko. Certain studies executed for the productions in Odessa Theatre of Opera and Ballet are also displayed in the exposition.

The Tretyakov gallery for the first time has exhibited full collection of Martiros Saryan’s paintings, kept in this famous museum. The exhibition is timed for 130th birthday of the eminent painter. ‘Give me the sun, color, light, general character of nature, people!’ – Martiros Saryan would exclaim. The artist whose art equally belongs both to the Armenian and Russian cultures needed only these sources for his creativity. Saryan could fully become a French artist: after successful exhibition in Paris in 1928 he was offered to remain in France. Saryan could have lived his long life in Moscow where he became so fantastically popular after finishing the art school under the guidance of such great masters as Valentine Serov and Constantine Korovin. The artist collaborated with ‘The Blue Rose’ - the association of symbolists, with ‘The Union of Russian painters’ and ‘The World of art’, his works were on permanent display like the works of the future leading figures of Russian avant-garde. Saryan’s life in Moscow was a success, his paintings were purchased by the galleries. He was one of the few to have there a studio, but complying with the call of the blood the artist had left for Armenia.
In fact, Saryan first saw the native land of his ancestors when he had already reached the conscious students’ age, because he was born in the south of Russia to where his forbears resettled in the XVII century. The art critic Tatyana Zelukina asserts that the flowering of the painter’s art starts precisely in Armenia. In 1921 when the Soviet power was established Martiros Saryan together with his family moved to Armenia. Here he finds himself in different spheres – both as a theatre painter and teacher and as a first director of Yerevan museum of Fine Arts. In his letters and memoirs he wrote that he dreamed about the museum to be like the ones in Moscow or in Petersburg. ‘And he really has achieved a lot’ – Tayana Zavyalova narrates. Martiros Saryan is the most titled soviet artist, who got his personal gallery in Yerevan within his lifetime, but he is a child of fortune only at first sight. The long years he was under the pressing of authorities that were dissatisfied with the subject-matter of his paintings, he was criticized for formalism and the lack of ideology. They say that when Saryan was ordered to portray Stalin, he remarked that he painted only from life; nonetheless he had to execute the order.
His Red Army soldiers did not look heroic, his builders of ‘radiant future’ lacked optimism. And only flowers and trees emanated ‘sun’ energy from his canvases.
‘I am a monumentalist’ – Saryan wrote about himself. ‘Large-scale depiction, generalization is in my art’s blood. It looks as if my painterly perceptions revolted against my own attempts to paint more minutely, or if one can say so – in a scattered way.’ - explained the painter the nature of his style. In Tatyana Zelykina’s opinion, the talent, equal to Saryan’s is a rare phenomenon. ‘He is a brilliant painter and unique personality. He is inimitable in his art. On the whole I believe him to be a realist’. – says the art critic. -‘His perception of life is realistic, only the painterly principles, the method and form of generalization distinguish him from the others. When looking at the famous picture ‘Old Yerevan’ one can literally imagine him painting with his brush! And here merely in a burst of inspiration, with a single touch – and the crown is already being painted. One more dab – a small figure appears. ‘Saryan’s dogs, donkeys…When he starts to paint the streets of old Yerevan, one can see the figures of women, slightly bent under the weight of the clay pitcher – they carry water from the spring. This is the image of Armenia. A woman – as a keeper of hearth and home, who is always to slake her family’s and her husband’s thirst.’
The exhibition of Martiros Saryan’s works from the collection of the Tretyakov gallery will last for a month, but it does not mean that the pictures cannot be displayed in Moscow later. As it is known many canvases of the eminent Armenian painter are on the permanent display in the museum.

The exposition starts with the wonderful collection of Martiros Saryan’s paintings. It is quite expected as it is difficult to imagine a painter so notable worldwide who could render the national spirit more keenly as this painter did. And unexpectedly – because such number of high quality and original examples of Master’s paintings is staggering. The paintings - small, cozy and at the same time exploding with their audacity and sappiness of southern tints, have occupied all the central space of the pillared hall of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Saryan here is very diverse. It is just as well as oriental beauties with ethnic hue, brought to some symbol, and mysterious florid gardens, vibrating with orange-blue mosaic (‘Under the Trees’, ‘By the Well in a Hot Day’.)
There are also skillfully executed, so typical for the painter minimalist compositions from his trips to Egypt, Constantinople and Persia. It seems that precisely in the paintings executed during these trips Saryan has attained the utmost simplicity and expressiveness: his ‘Walking Woman’ looks as if carved from the blue paper’s sheet and is ‘stuck’ to the equally flat green bush; but her pace is so swift and organic that a bright and lively feeling arose at the sight of this simple and dynamic picture.
The painting ‘Constantinople. Dogs’ is simply gushing forth the blazing color, the strayed dogs barking, bright orange melting under the Turkish sun… Just next to it – entirely different Saryan, reserved and calm, captivating with simple harmony of moonlit blue haze, ‘diluted’ with the silhouettes of trees and oxen. (‘The Night Landscape’). ‘Self-Portrait’ with red-and-blue striped face is a tribute to audacious Fauvism, and next to it – so strikingly subtle, exquisite, in Art Nouveau style with sandy hues – ‘Portrait of M.Afrikian’ with barely discernible note of exoticism: silhouettes of female deer in the foreground. And finally there is the height of freedom and song of joy – ‘Large Oriental Landscape’. Here is entire Orient - motley, sunny, bright and at the same time subtle: against the background of the tapestry the carelessly scattered masks, vases, peaches, tangerines and pointed shoes create on the whole a harmonious and balanced composition.

The symbol of the Tree of life stands out through the entire of Saryan’s art, and is one of the key symbols for perceiving Saryan’s phenomenon in art in general.
Starting from 1904 one by one graphic and painterly works in which Saryan develops his pictorial perception of Nature, world and Universe and defines Man’s place in this spiritual milieu are executed. Getting knowledge accumulated for millennia by various nations and cultures, creatively developing aesthetic and artistic traditions of medieval Armenian miniature, Saryan constructs his intimate world of symbols and images amidst which Tree of Life has its special place. The greatness of Saryan lies in the fact that employing the modern pictorial language, he interprets the numerous transformations of the Tree motif - as Tree of World (Arbor Mundi), as Axis and World Image (Axis and Imago Mundi), as Mount of World (Ararat), as Altar (Temple) – all these symbols are united by a common idea, they happen to be a connecting link between Earth and Heaven, they embody our striving for God, for Supreme Mind, for the perfection and immortality.
Saryan creates his own fairy tale, his perception of Heaven on Earth and continues mythological creativity in contemporary art.
Saryan painted trees throughout his entire life. They are captivating, fantastic and fairy. They beckon us under their vivifying canopy, filling with cosmic energy. For centuries they bring to us the rustle of the mighty Tree of Life, planted in the centre of Eden by the Great Creator. Saryan’s trees placed as a rule in the middle of composition embody the idea of World Axis and all living beings, including Man are depicted around. This is distinctly traceable in such works as ‘By the Tree. Fairy Tale. (1904), “By the Pomegranate Tree’ (1907), ‘Gazelles by the Tree’ (1907), ‘By the Well. A Hot Day’ (1908), ‘Date-Palm’ (1911), ‘Persia’ (1915), ‘Under Apricot Trees’ (1954) and so on.
Special attention should be paid to Saryan’s painting – ‘By the Well. A Hot Day.’ In this painting he depicted his amazingly fantastic Tree of Life. With its roots plunged into the earth, touching the underground waters the tree is growing in the world of Time and Space and its branches reach heaven and eternity. The strength and power of the trunk with its strongly marked age ridges is perceived. The forces of Earth feeding the tree crown are rushing up along the trunk. On a sultry day a blissful shadow is streaming down the tree, creating the oasis of peace and harmony. People and animals are rushing here, seeking shelter from the glaring, scorching sun. As though accumulating cosmic energy the tree crown permeated by the sun light nourishes all living on earth.
The 1911 ‘Date-Palm’ is another classic example of the Tree of Life in Saryan’s art. While working at this painting Saryan was engulfed by the Egyptian mythology. The ancient Egyptians considered ‘Date-Palm’ to be a symbol of the Sun God Ra and symbol of his daughter Hathor – the goddess of sky and fertility. ‘Date-Palm’ as tree of righteous men, as symbol of Virgin Mary is also present in the medieval Christian tradition.
Saryan worshipped Sun no less than the ancient Egyptians did. A ‘Date-Palm’ as symbol of Tree of Life was not a randomly chosen and glorified design. On the whole, studying Saryan’s art we realize that a lot of motifs depicted in his works are not just enchanting and gorgeous but bear original symbolism and hidden meaning.
Saryan inherited the symbolic mode of thinking from our medieval masters, and it was Saryan who had created the State Emblem of Armenia, fully expressing the adherence of our country to its principle values that had been developed throughout centuries.
The point is certainly not about an officially adopted national emblem but about its initial variant, where Ararat was illuminated by the rising sunrays, the valley from both sides had been entwined with the branches of Tree of Life, the rest – grapes, wheat ears could be seen on many national emblems of the union republics. The symbols of sun and Tree of Life had to be sacrificed in favor of retaining Ararat at least. In some of his compositions Saryan arranges 3 transformations of Tree motif in one semantic line - Tree, Temple, Ararat. And it is also not without purpose that he painted many of his such-like pictures in the years when churches had been destroyed, shrines overthrown and people deprived of religion and God. During the hardest, god-forsaken times Saryan adhered to his principles and ideals.
He was devoted to ‘Tree of life’ as to the main symbol of vital forces of nature, with its sprouting, flowering, fruit-bearing, endless life and immortal Spirit. At the end of his life Saryan has created quite a number of fantastic works with trees. They are executed with a felt pen on paper. A composition with 3 trees is entitled ‘Katia, me and Lusik’( Katia – the younger sister of the painter). This inscription enables us to assume that at the end of his life Saryan juxtaposed himself and his relatives with trees. In the Master’s graphic works we see a big old tree with many branches which are sometimes quite withered but yet full of bygone grandeur and we can undoubtedly put down these works to the symbolic portraits of the painter himself.
The following words of Saryan testify that his world outlook had been formed around the ‘Tree of Life’ conception. ‘I see every nation’, - the great artist once said, ‘as a mighty tree, - Its roots go deep into the native soil, while its branches covered with blossoms and fruit spread out the entire world. The same with art – everything that is genuine and truly national is always universal.’

Director of the Martiros Saryan House-Museum
Rouzan Saryan