ISSN 1829-4618

THE REFLECTION OF THE HAMIDIAN MASSACRES AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN ARMENIAN PAINTING (1894-1923)

By: Aghasyan A. V., Corresponding Member of NAS RA, Director of the Institute of Art of NAS RA

The Armenian people suffered a great tragedy and tremendous losses at the end of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century. The Hamidian massacres of 1894-96 were followed by mass extermination of Armenians programmed and committed by the Young Turks. It was an unprecedented intentional genocide in the 20th century world history, an attempt at physical annihilation of a whole nation and total destruction of its culture. Those bloody events deeply shocked both the contemporaries and the next generations of Armenians who survived the Genocide. They were reflected not only in official documents, the press, documentary films and in the memoirs of Genocide survivors, but also in literature and art, including painting. Throughout decades many of the painters and sculptors living in Armenia and the Diaspora created hundreds of paintings, graphic works, easel sculptures and monuments covering the massacres and deportation of Armenians through which they expressed their pain and wrath, presented their remonstrances and demands, at the same time preaching great humanitarian ideas.

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