The oldest St. Petersburg art gallery “The Masters’ Guild” (82, Nevsky Prospect) presents to the public an exhibition of Armen Gasparyan’s paintings. The exhibition opens on 10 April and will last through 10 May.
     Armen Gasparyan was born in Armenia. For over 20 years he has lived and worked in St. Petersburg. In his art merge the ancient oriental tradition with the classic occidental culture. Filled with theatre and circus attributes, Gasparyan’s allegorical symbolic paintings represent the artist’s philosophical thoughts about life and man. Life is show, life is theatre, life is acting. Such is Gasparyan’s not too joyous attitude towards subsistence. This attitude, however, is permeated with the artist’s true sympathy with the hero of this mysterious, beautiful yet always fatal performance. A feeling of intimate secrecy creates the atmosphere of mesmeric attraction around Armen’s paintings. The clue to the secret is perhaps in the Armenian script, which covers the canvases. These paintings “hold” the viewers, carry them away from the orbit of routine flow of life to the fabulous world of dreams and allusions.
     Our interview with Armen Gasparyan took place in the comfortable flat of Gasparyan’s family, where in a harmonious atmosphere and to the accompaniment of classical music dwell Armen’s beautiful wife Olga, three lovely dark-eyed kids, a dog and paintings, paintings, paintings…
     Armen, where did you study painting?
     I studied at the Department of painting and graphic arts of the St. Petersburg Hertzen Pedagogical University. Before that I graduated from the Armenian Arts School.
     When did your own recognisable artistic style take shape?
     While a student I took part in exhibitions and at first was working in a completely different style (shows “Crucifixion” – a combination of old masters’ style and an Isachev’s kind of thing). I succeeded in it and the paintings sold well. At that time there was a considerable public excitement about post-soviet art. Gradually I departed from this method. By the end of my studies I had developed the different pictorial and figurative style, to which I adhere today.
     I like Breighel very much. Speaking about artistic eras, I like Early Renaissance and symbolism mostly for their austerity, purity and philosophical attitude to life. Periods in between are not my favorite, in spite of the brilliant development of pictorial technique at that time.
     You have mentioned symbolism not by chance, I guess. Do the theatre accessories that are present in your pictures have symbolic meaning?
     Certainly they do. Take for example the picture “A Man on Stilts”. Figuratively I wanted to depict a man in an attempt to raise above commonness and vanity. In the painting “A King and a Jester” two men are playing different roles, like they do in life. These roles are just theatre costumes, which will be thrown off at the end of the play of life. Everyone will sooner or later arrive at the same terminus.
     What name would you choose for the coming exhibition if necessary?
     I had an exhibition in Germany which was called “In Search of the Lost Paradise”. Beautiful name. To my mind it corresponds to the substance of my paintings. Some look for the traces of the lost paradise in Mesopotamia. In my opinion the paradise, as well as the hell could be found in the heart of every man. They are purely spiritual categories.
     Armen, is it difficult when both members of the family are painters?
     Not at all. Art is what additionally ties us together. We understand and help each other. It would of course be convenient to have a separate big studio and to leave family life and everything to my wife. But that would be unfair, for she is also an artist like me.
     It is no secret that your paintings are in demand in the West. Every year you arrange exhibitions in Holland, Belgium and other countries. Are there any differences in your approach to work for the Western market and for the Russian public?
     Paintings cost more in the West. As to my approach, I do not make any difference for either market; I simply create and try to express myself.

     Masters’ Guild Art Gallery
     82 Nevsky Prospect.
     Open daily: 12 pm – 8 pm.
     Tel.: 7 (812) 579-09-79
     guild_of_masters@mail.ru