bagrat   Bagrat Grigorian  
     
 

Bagrat Grigorian was born in 1939 in Leninakan (Gyumri).
1957 – finished art school, named after S.Merkurov. Studied in the studios of H.Ananikian and S.Mirzoyan (Leninakan).
1960-1963 – studied at the Art College, named after P.Terlemezian (Yerevan).
1967 – graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts and Drama (Yerevan).
1965, 1966, 1968, 1969 – participated in Youth exhibitions.
1970 – illustrated books and magazines.
1971 – 1st personal exhibition, after which he was charged with being heterodox. His future participation in the exhibitions was prohibited.
1972, 1975 – with two works he succeeded in the participation of group exhibitions.
1977, 1979 – with three works participated in the group exhibitions (France, Estonia).
1978-1985 – was exhibited in “Basmajian” gallery (Paris). After his personal exhibition in Los-Angeles, his works were shown in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Mongolia, Iran, Argentina, Canada, Lebanon, Russia.
1991 – was invited to Beirut, to give classes in “Toros Roslin” High School.
1992 – personal exhibition in Antilias (Beirut).
1992 – died in Yerevan.
1996 – personal exhibition (40 works, NGA, Yerevan). The works are kept in Modern Art Museum (Yerevan), National Gallery of Armenia (Yerevan), Tretyakov gallery (Moscow), many private galleries and collections abroa.
2001 – posthumous exhebition "Bagrat-Emma-Manuk Grigorians" in Tenafly (New Jersey)

 

He has just turned a fifty and had a successful exhibit in Beirut. Just a month after his return to Yerevan, however, he passed away. Bagrat was one of the younger representatives of the generation that was emerged in 1960's. He was a close friend of Minas Avetisyan.The latter had written a few words of praise about his younger friend. Those words turned out to betray Bagrat; that taciturn and modest friend of ours, who devoted himself to a spiritual in the realm of art, became a target for critics who carried out the instructions of their superiors in a servile manner. Taken aback and distraught, Bagrat often repeated, "Just imagine if this were 1937"

His exhibition was held posthumously in the National Gallery of Art. A selection of vivid paintings presented the viewer with a world of inner vision, born of visible phenomena and memories of youth. The cleanliness of Bagrat's world enthrals the viewer, particularly when the life is unexpectedly interrupted.
Bagrat's noble struggle to discover himself as creative artist, is in itself worthy of high appreciation. It is symbolic that there are no shadows in his paintings, which are constructed with broad expressive expanses of color. In life as well, Bagrat lived out in the open. Hes talent, in turn, did not leave his painting in shade. Born in difficult time, it echoed the new movements of Armenian art.

Shahen Khachatryan
Director, National Gallery of Armenia.
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