KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

An exhibition dedicated to the life and activity of painter Haykaz Soghomonyan, a graduate of Armenian State Pedagogical University (Department of Painting and Drawing), opened at the ASPU Museum.

The opening ceremony was attended by the painter’s friends and relatives, as well as prominent art critics, professors, students and schoolchildren. During the matinee, the painter’s friends and lecturers shared their memories and feelings with the attendees, spoke about the painter’s works and his contribution to the development of Armenian painting.

Haykaz Soghomonyan’s lecturer Mary Yerznkyan, a lecturer at the ASPU and PhD Candidate in Art History, conveyed to the audience her memories and impressions of Haykaz Soghomonyan whom she introduced not only as an artist, but also as an individual, a student and a teacher. Sculptor Tariel Hakobyan spoke about the invaluable contribution of the painter to Armenian painting while ASPU lecturer, Professor Fayenberg Sargsyan, who studied with Haykaz Soghomonyan, spoke about the painter’s student years and stormy creative life.

Gohar Chemenyan, who works in the Graphic Art Department of the National Gallery of Armenia, has studied the painter's works for many years and compiled a thick catalogue of his works. Though she was not lucky enough to know Soghomonyan personally, Gohar Chemenyan was able to study and reveal his colourful, at the same time self-contained inner world through the painter's works.

The painter's sister Lusya Soghomonyan thanked the presentees and said she had not sold any of her brother's paintings, especially after learning that they would be taken out of Armenia. “The painter conveyed his emotions and concerns hidden in his mind and soul not only through his brush, but also through his pen. The painter’s last wish was to have a museum where his works [that exceed 1000] will be exhibited,” said Lusya Soghomonyan.

Haykaz Soghomonyan was born in Yerevan. He studied at the Pedagogical University where his supervisor was renowned Armenian painter Hovhannes Zardaryan. Haykaz Soghomonyan participated in a number of exhibitions and was encouraged by his senior colleague Henrik Siravyan to open a solo exhibition. As the painter’s sister, Lusya Soghomonyan, says, ‘Haykaz Soghomonyan exhibited his paintings devoted to the Armenian Genocide in the period when others were even afraid to utter the word ‘genocide’”.