The turn and the first quarter of any century almost always represent a raging furnace of contradictory ideas and worldviews. In this period the tectonic displacements of consciousness comprise all the key areas of activity of the society, including the economical, political, social, and spiritual areas.
The culture of the first quarter of a century is a unique and rich phenomenon. At this particular period the society seeks to apprehend the cultural heritage of the previous era, concurrently uncover new paths of movement, styles and trends. In this context, the beginning of the present century is no exception. However, if at 20th century the “imitative” concept of the culture yielded to “figurative-symbolism”, and radically new currents emerged, one of the most important features of contemporary art is rethinking the development path of art in general. In the kaleidoscope of post-modernism all styles were easily mixed and freely used by contemporary young artists already at the end of the 20th century. Post-impressionism, post-fauvism, variations of abstract art, constructivism, expressionism, surrealism, primitivism, kitsch, pop-art, op-art, conceptualism, other “isms” with prefixes “post”, “post-post” or “neo” fluently flew into 21th century. Based on approaches of past the new contemporary art began to develop. In a visual meaning, the synthesis of everything and anything became possible.
This is the context in which we want to evaluate the interesting and unique art of Narek Arzumanyan, one of the most talented young Armenian painters, who currently lives and works in Germany.
Arzumanyan belongs to the rear “cohort” of artists, who may be called artists for artists. His art is so deeply experience-based and intense in its primordial savagery that only the professional look may feel and discern the master of composition and art prodigy. It’s enough for a sophisticated spectator to look at his multiple realistic, anatomically accurate caricatures and brilliant cartoons drawn with ink, brush, pen or marker. And although they are equal in quality to the works of top comics artists and cartoonists, the painter does not give them particular significance. He makes them unconsciously, as if casually doodled during telephone conversation or at his leisure time, doesn’t exhibit and doesn’t sign them.
The quality of these sketches demonstrates the exceptional artistic skills and mastery, which is, as a rule, achieved through years of learning arts and crafts.
Attention should be drawn on the artist’s natural sense of line, proportion and composition, abilities similar to the innate sense of color or absolute pitch.
This is vividly seen from the sketchbooks, albums of the artist preserved from his childhood. Their pages are full with human figures, dinosaurs and imaginary fantastic creatures. Despite their small size the quality of their “completeness”: integrity of composition, performance and continuity of lines is striking. They are made without smudges, erasures and corrections.
Narek Arzumanyan has received formal art education. He graduated from Yerevan Art College after P. Terlemezyan, department of painting. He also studied for two years at Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts. This was a professional education based on the best traditions of Russian-Soviet realistic school of art.
As the painter confessed, he had never been fond of the “classical, realistic approach to the art”. His tendency towards expressive imagery and grotesque transformation of depicted objects is apparent already in his student works.
During the period of his learning even the terms “light and shade”, “shapes modelling”, “rendition of tissues, skin, muscles, flesh etc.” were repellent and odious to him. His teacher found the way out, kindly allowing him to freely distort the forms of the models in his studies. During this period the paintings and drawings of Honoré Daumier became the source of inspiration for most of Arzumanyan’s student works. Later he discovered the art of Francis Bacon.
As it turned out, the theme of physical and spiritual suffering, loss, death, despair were very close to Arzumanyan’s heart and subsequently became the leitmotif of his art. These themes resonated with the personal problems of the painter: non-admission of his artistic vision of the world, complicated relations in the family, health problems.
In the age of 14 Narek was diagnosed with epilepsy. When he was in the second grade of the Art’s Academy, the situation with the disease became very serious and he had to leave for Germany for medical treatment. There in a small, cramped dorm-room of the refugee camp the painter lived long four and a half years. Fleeing from the problems that haunted him in his homeland, in Germany the artist found himself isolated. That was isolation in every sense of the word. Enclosed in a small space, without knowledge of the language, he faced all the negative aspects of loneliness. Despite the lack of materials and continuous depression the painter created a large number of small-format works. He used everything that was at hand: a pen, any piece of paper, pizza package, and cardboard boxes from food catering provided by social assistance. Often, being in a depressed state, the artist did not leave his room for several days, sitting for a long time naked in front of a huge mirror found and brought from somewhere. Staring at his own reflection, he looked out for something as if trying to understand and find himself.
Ever since his study in the art school Arzumanyan showed a strong interest in self-portrait. Since then, this interest only increased and proneness to introspection became one of the key themes in the artwork of the painter. Numerous compositional portraits drawn on the notebook sheets with black marker belong to the period spent in the camp. They evoke anxiety, cause discomfort, and strike with a sense of uselessness, aggression, deep psychological trauma, feeling of self-humiliation and self-irony.
Among all these sketches, the most noteworthy is the following. A head with empty eye sockets stands out on the black, expressive background. The face, distorted from suffering, gapes with an empty grin of “Gwynplaine's” frightening evil smile. (This is the name of the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s novel “The Man Who Laughs”, who since childhood was disfigured by the “Comprachicos” - the buyers of children. They deliberately transformed the bodies and faces of children, and trained them to act as jesters). The naked body, with shapeless hand stumps, is drawn with nervous strokes, and behind the butt there is a “trace” of gases released from the arse with a note “f-a-a-a-r-t”. What a cruel self-irony...
Loneliness, of course, is a special way of self-perception, acute form of self-awareness, specific sense of full self-immersion. The human being chooses loneliness when he or she doesn’t find an emotional feedback in relations with other people, or for the purpose of self-discovery. In case of Arzumanyan this has not been the choice of the artist – rather, fate, a coincidence.
Sometime after living in the camp room, having saved some money from his meagre social allowance the painter bought high-quality Sennelier oil crayons and several colors of R&F oil pigment sticks. These professional materials made it possible to paint in bright and simple colors. They mix well, make it possible to work with paint directly, without tools. In the pastel works of the artist the painting style changes drastically. If during the years spent in the art college and the Academy he was strongly influenced by Francis Bacon, in Germany the painter comes to a new formal interpretation of images. The attitude towards composition is also reviewed. The interest towards the three-dimensional form is neutralized, the spatial and volumetric interpretation of a picture plane changes. Even in his early works the painter was not very interested in linear-aerial perspectives, and already in Germany his compositions become explicitly plane. The primary nature of artistic image, its personal, deep meaning is highlighted. This is also facilitated by the choice of material - oil pastels. Energetic, uncompromising strokes of compressed pigment, in some places delicate shading of shapes give the works incredible strength.
At first glance it even may seem that we are looking at drawings of some genius “child”. Most of the works made in the camp room are drawn in this spontaneous, wild manner. Among them, it is worth focusing on the series of self-portrait-compositions of the artist. The main themes touched in these paintings are doubts whether he had made the right choice of moving to Germany, dissatisfaction with oneself, sexual frustration, painful, endless expectation for change, grief and sadness for friends and loved ones left somewhere far away.
The place where actions of these compositions take place is the same room in the dormitory. Its interior seems to be observed from outside of the building through the window, the blue casements of which compositionally cut the sides of scant furnishings of the room. One of the works depicts the ascetic bed of the painter, а crooked, wobbly chair, an old refrigerator, a pair of shoes and empty bottles lined up against the wall. The light blue color of the floor, the grotesque, intrinsically dynamic styling of objects inadvertently reminds of the most famous room in the history of art: the painting of Vincent van Gog “Bedroom in Arles”. However, the painter goes beyond the trivial depiction of the interior. At the window of the room, a "criminal thriller" with bloody dismemberment takes place. There one can see a table and a beheaded body sitting on the chair. A severed head sticks out on the table in a puddle of blood, staring at its own corpse with horror. A blood-soaked penis hangs from the table. On the sash of the window, “Tranquility” is written. In another composition, in the center of the sheet, there is a frontal depiction of a crying, or rather roaring figure, on top of which it is written in large letters - “I am here. Please come and take me with you. I'm one of you. I am your Dog” (among the closest friends the nickname of the artist was “Dog”). On the third self-portrait a note is seen “I don’t have regrets, yet”.
For all the tragedy of themes and seriousness of “bloody” scenes, the compositions of this period do not make a negative, depressing impression – they rather look like skillfully performed, stylish illustrations of a psychological, detective thriller. The rich colors of his works, their unrealistic, archaically primitive manner of painting contribute to it.
During the three years of his stay in the refugee camp the situation with residence documents was not resolved. The artist become more and more withdrawn into himself, his depression intensified. More often, he locks himself in his room, without even going to the toilet, using for this purpose a “collection” of empty bottles left after use. Problems with sleep began. Narek was lying in his bed for hours, losing the perception of time – day and night, sleep and wakefulness.
Oppressed by unsolved problems of consciousness, loaded by insomnia, he was haunted by visions and nightmares. It seemed to the artist that he was going crazy, suicidal thoughts came to his mind. Only the ability to creatively rethink psychological problems saved him.
The ability of introspection, a quality characteristic to the artist, manifested throughout his creative path.
As a true homo ludens (playing person), the artist perceives reality through a kind of psychological game.
Like a savage, he completely immerses himself in the "cult" of images he is playing, sincerely believes and fully accepts the rules of the game. Like a child, Arzumanyan identifies himself with the characters he draws - whose masks he "puts" on his face. In one of the pastels, he is represented as a dog: instead of a dog's head, the artist's head is depicted, in others on a human body - the head of a dog, wolf, jackal, or fox.
Among these zoomorphic works, compositions are especially dramatic. The head of the artist is drawn in an enormous mouth of a cartoon wolf, with sharp teeth in a crocodile like jaw. This is a kind of visual interpretation of the artist's self-criticism, his self-destruction, and defensive reaction to the current situation, fight with his doubts, and a dialogue with his inner “beast”. The artist has low self-esteem. One of the sheets proclaims - "Do not like me".
The theme of death occupies a special place in the works of Narek Arzumanyan. In different periods of his artwork, it reveals itself quite differently.
If in his graduate painting “Dead thieves and children” the death is depicted factually, with anatomically precise details, in the cardboard portraits of his early German period, the painter changes his approach. Here he wants to tell about death as of the last mystery of human existence, a certain transitional stage, a state beyond existence. Small face images resemble Fayum portraits. On them the spectator sees interesting faces with exaggerated, huge closed eyes, framed by tight borders of the corrugated cardboard. Their gaze is concentrated on their inner self. Frozen in meditation, as if having reached nirvana, images attract by their spirituality. The small format of the composition does not cause discomfort. The fact that you are looking at images of dead people can only be guessed from one work, where the artist used cardboard of a larger format and drew an outline of the coffin that frames the image (portrait). The post-mortem photographs of ordinary citizens and thieves (criminal authorities) posted in newspapers and magazines served as sources of inspiration for the series of artist’s portraits. The painting technique of a series of portraits differs with limited palette. As basis for wax pastels Arzumanyan uses utility cardboards, unwrapped packing boxes, cover of notebooks, etc. First, the artist applies the primary layers of wax pastel, which gives to the cardboard an interesting, uneven, bumpy surface. Already on top of this textured imprimatura, with delicate shading of the same pastel, the artist draws large, rough, archaic grotesque facial features and models their forms. The author cannot do without his sarcastic humor. On one of the portraits where the head is missing there is a note with a mix of Armenian and Russian words saying: “Глух ты мой” (Head of mine).
In this period of crisis for the artist, a reassessment of many values takes place, and his attitude towards religion and God is also being transformed. As a child, the artist had a very traumatic experience of close communication with members of the neo-Pentecostal religious sect “Word of Life”. Participation in several liturgies, where believers fell on the floor in the trance, waving their hands in exaltation, “speaking languages” (which often resembles an epileptic fit) made an indelible impression on Arzumanyan's psyche.
All his life he had doubts concerning appropriateness or perverseness of his desires and actions, was deeply concerned about the concepts of guilt and sin.
In numerous cartoons depicting the head of Christ, the artist reconsiders his attitude towards the “Son of God”. The iconography of images of the Savior is not canonical. The artist didn’t like portraying the Savior with golden halo on his head. Arzumanyan rather depicts the decapitated head of St John the Baptist, with thick, rough crop of hair on his head and face, than the refined head of Jesus. In search of answers, he changes the face of Christ in every possible way, draws him with a bloody and smashed face: this way he appears to be more genuine, more human. In one of his graphical works portraits of Christ are compared with depictions of decapitated heads of Armenians: martyrs of the tragic events in the Ottoman Turkey dating back to World War I. Among these portraits the painter also symbolically depicts himself.
Finally after four and a half years, Narek Arzumanyan was given the permission to live and work in Germany. Even the sad news of having been diagnosed with diabetes could not upset him.
All of a sudden the scanty, confined space of the small room in the refugee camp swung open before him with new realm never seen before. After acquiring a sudden freedom he experiences as he puts it, “a cultural shock”. Social equality, tolerance of opinions, freedom of expression, sexual freedom were for him like a refreshing cold shower. The opportunity to contemplate the best examples of contemporary art in the original, not through reproductions, or the Internet was simply invaluable. Taking up employment in a factory for steady income Narek gains a little financial independence. Finally, there comes a time when it becomes possible to paint on paper and canvas. The artist increases the format of his works, tries new, high-quality, professional materials – acrylic markers, oil and acrylic paints. As before, the theme of the artist's new compositions revolves around his personal experiences, however, they no longer contain that deep pessimism and the all-denying nihilism of his early works. Arzumanyan’s compositions of this period are kind of interesting visual stories, the plotlines of which are concealed, not always readable and as such even more appealing. In some works, the artist combines the meanings and images of modern life, in others he is reminiscing his childhood memories. “Samurai from Odzun” depicts childhood games in his native village, during which young Narek, pulls out his “sharp katana” made of flexible rods of hazel, beheads the “army” of his opponents. On the same painting the already tired samurai, is sitting and resting among corpses of his dismembered “enemies” (weeds) with his helmet taken off. Stylistically these works continue and develop the formal search for bright, wild style of his pastel works of the period when he lived in the camp.
They are dominated by a flat, decorative composition. The modernist understanding of the picture plane, its formal interpretation are on the first place. Gradually, the artist moves away from this approach.
The external “beauty” of the image, its artistic mastery lose their importance. By his clumsiness, deliberate sloppiness of brush strokes the artist seems to disvalue the artistic skillfulness. The very essence of the subject matter becomes more significant.
In the artist's works of the last three - four years, his natural ability to satirical, caricatured deformation of images is manifested with might and main. In the canvas "The Lion and Hitler", an old sick lion with bandaged paws is lying on the artist's favorite red soft sofa.
The head and muzzle of the royal beast became moldy and out of shape. It gazes at the spectator with wide open fearful eyes through the veil of fungi growing over its head.
A small toy “Fuhrer” stands on the back of the sofa and shouts loudly - “War! Digital spirit!”. In the grotesque, distorted reality of such works as “Advertising of War”, “Amateur Suicide”, “Hitler’s Funeral” the patchy, ambiguous picture of the modern world is reflected. Arzumanyan likes to shock the audience, change the context of familiar symbols and images, and fill them with other meanings.
With daring of a harlequin he “jokes” on the prohibited topics of history, religion, sex, life and death.
Shocking with impudence and desecrating the taboos, the artist seems to be telling us - "Come on guys, don't be too serious...”
Artur Hakobyan
Artist,
Ph.D. in History of Arts
