Ashot Avagyan (Armenian: Աշոտ Ավագյան; born May 20, 1958) is a modern Armenian artist who lives and works in Sisian, Armenia.
The cornerstone of Avagyan's artistic work is the cultural heritage of his homeland Sisian and Syunik. Iconography from Neolithic petroglyphs and medieval Armenian gravestones are present in Avagyan's works on canvas, while ancient tales, rituals, and their interpretations and ancient local monuments (Zorats Karer, Portakar, Ukhtasar petroglyphs) are integrated into his performances.
Ashot Avagyan was awarded the state prize in 2013 for the fresco Mashtots, located in the symposium hall of the newly built subsidiary building of the Mashtots Matenadaran.
Besides artistic work, Avagyan taught fine arts at Sisian Children's Art School after Z. Khachatryan from 1981 to 2016. From 2010 to 2018 Ashot was curating works of the megalithic site ''Zorats Karer historical-cultural reserve''.
Ashot Avagyan was born in 1958 in Sisian, Soviet Armenia to Ararat Avagyan, father, a history teacher. His mother Parandzem Voskanyan was an accountant. Ashot's interest in fine arts started at the Children's Art School of Sisian, where he attended the studios of E. Hakobjanyan, V. Stepanyan, and Z. Khachatryan.
In 1975 Avagyan entered the Yerevan Art College after P. Terlemezyan, studying in the studio of Samvel Petrosyan. From 1977 to 1979 he joined the Soviet Army and was in military service in Siberia. After graduating in 1981 he returned to his hometown and started teaching at Children's Art School until 2016.
In the frame of the Artsakh movement of 1988, Ashot Avagyan was one of the organizers of protests in Sisian together with his maternal uncle Vurg Voskanyan who later was martyred in 1993 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. After the first protests, the Karabakh Committee of Sisian was established with members including Ashot Minasyan, Masis Baghdasaryan, Artush Yesayan, and others. Avagyan's artistic development was paused as he concentrated his efforts on the war and later on in the development of the army as a coordinator of civil issues of Sisian's military unit. He fully returned to art in 1998 after his military service.[citation needed]
Fine Arts and Performances
The local cultural environment and the surroundings are fundamental for Ashot Avagyan's artistic practice. The artist's fascination with historic sites especially petroglyphs started during childhood, when examining his father's professional literature on local history. However, he discovered for himself the petroglyphs of Ukhtasar during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and later on returned there a couple of times establishing an off-road path to reach them. This afterward was developed into a gravel route, turning Ukhtasar petroglyphs into one of the most visited tourist attractions of Sisian.[1]
Besides petroglyphs, their motives and the structure of the stones, artist turns to figurative carvings of medieval Armenian gravestones as a source of inspiration.
Ashot Avagyan, ''Meeting 1''
Ashot Avagyan's art reveals own characteristics when analyzed and compared. Being contemporary, it misses out many of conceptual tendencies of contemporary art. It doesn't strive for the complex inter-textual and inter-meshed analysis and deconstruction in general.[2] It neither hides messages to audience to interpret. In this sense his art is quite straight forward. The depicted presents everyday life scenes ('Hunt', 'Walk', 'Meeting', 'Idyll'), emotions ('Lamentation', 'Musicians'), which get evident through the action depicted in the picture. Also universal subjects, such as death and birth. In this way he gets close to revealing the most fundamental, universal matters, the life cycle and questions on life. From formal perspective Avagyan's art is astonishing. The surface of the works is developed very finely. The technical characteristics are archived by carefully thought out and considered layering of materials and combination and interaction of presented motives. The whole delicacy of the works is unfolded when the canvas is examined in close up and in details.
Another dimension of Ashot Avagyna's work is performance. The performances are hybrid of rituals, myths, Armenian and other traditions, local tales. On the other hand, those do not obtain ethnographic character, rather are built on artist's own interpretations, reflections and their prospecting on modern art. Existential narrative like death ("Return" and "Return-2"), where the artist together with Azat Sargsyan, presents elements not only the burial tradition common in Armenia, but also integrates details from ancient times and typical to some other cultures. For example, coffin that resembles a boat that is burned. A practice known in ancient Scandinavia and other cultures. The transport of coffin with horses exchanged with motorcycles is an example of playful interpretation. In another performance "Fertility" artist revises the ancient fertility ritual practiced in Sisian, Portakar, without taking the core narrative of the tradition and cult. While in "Sacrifice" only a part of Armenian fairy tales (the dragon blocking the source of water, is offered a virgin in order to let the water out for the villagers), is brought up in action in order to show the ritual of sacrifice. In other performances, the sacrifice objects become artist's own canvases. For all the performances ritual is an important component, however the main characteristics are that all of them take place in nature and cultural monuments. No gallery or museum space is involved. This creates not only the instantaneous action but also intends to bring the art to nature and nature to art, the action of performance is united with the surrounding monument, combining them as inseparable units. This notion is exposed especially in the first performances, where in "Dialogue" the artist tried to create a relationship between his art, nature and Zorats Karer monument hanging his paintings and letting the wind and the sound of the movement from canvases create a 'conversation'. In the act of "The Way" the creation of the life is rendered by his canvases coming out of water, life being canvases and the water that originated the life being the lake of mount Ukhtasar.
Both in performances and in his fine arts artist not only attempts to create a bridge between culture of the past and the present but becomes the bridge, the intermediary for connecting the two times, and the filler for the gap between them, the catalyst. And his art not only obtains the independence from the cultural heritage, not only carries it but also turns into a way of preservation of that same cultural heritage.
In 2014 Ashot Avagyan established 'Epicenter Art Laboratory', where he conducts his performances. It is an open-air site outside of Sisian resembling a megalithic cromlech. The artist considers it as a sacred place, and the site is under constant development.
List of Solo Shows
2017- April 2016, 'Whore’s Stocking' military position, Sargis Muradyan Gallery, Yerevan, Armenia
Art Caucasus. Art Expo-2004. Tbilisi: Art Caucasus [Arm., Eng.]
Work with Zorats Karer archaeological site
From 2010 to 2018 Ashot Avagyan was the director of Zorats Karer megalithic historical complex in Sisian. His engagement in different projects targeted the development of tourism on the site, as well as surroundings. He also assisted different local and international archaeological expeditions, among them the Oxford University Expedition (leader Mihran Vardanyan), aimed ratifying scientific evidence related to the site, disclosing the myths and conspiracy created and spread by non-scientific circles (P. Herouni and his followers). The latter circles occasionally targeted artist, his art and persona with fake news and offenses, however, these harassment and insults, especially in social media, were extremely intensified in 2018. On top of that, disagreements with newly established government led the artist to terminate his position.
Political engagement and repressions
In February 1988 Ashot Avagyan together with his maternal uncle Vurg Voskanyan organized and coordinated the demonstrations for Karabakh Movement in Sisian. This of course, was discouraged by the communist authorities of the town, neither KGB was delighted. However, as the demonstrations picked up a massive wave, and many more joined the movement, the organizers avoided imprisonment.
After independence, Avagyan was elected as a member of local committee of Sisian, and since then actively participated in shaping local politics of the town.
During the ban of Armenian Revolutionary Federation activities in Armenia from 1994 to 1998, Ashot Avagyan's political engagement with ARF went underground. Massive repressions from the governing regime took over the ARF work, while he continued his military service.
In 2008 Avagyan was elected as a member of Council of Elders in Sisian having an active role in it.
In November 2020, days after prime minister Nikol Pashinyan signed ceasefire agreement on third Nagorno-Karabakh war, Ashot Avagyan, together with Ashot Minasyan, Artur Vanetsyan and Vahram Baghdasaryan, was accused for assassination attempt on prime minister. Security service arrested Ashot and others basing on an audio record that National Security Service broadcast on national television. Prior to that, Ashot's house was illegally searched (with no evidence found), and he was brought to National Security Service headquarters in Yerevan as a witness. There he then was accused and arrested. During the first trial the judge released the artist and others as it was proven that the audio record was fake. Security service, using phone tapping, recorded mobile conversations of defendants and editing them fabricated the record. Since prosecuting side could not provide a single evidence that the defendants planned an assassination, the case didn't progress. A year later, in December 2021, all the defendants were justified, and the case was closed.[3] Avagyan is known for publicly criticizing Nikol Pashinyan, his party and later on his government, and this case, obviously demonstrates Pashinyan's attempt to repress the artist for his political views.
Personal life
Ashot Avagyan has a younger sister and a younger brother (who also participated in Nagorno-Karabakh wars) and two children.
