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 of the Neolithic petroglyphs and Middle Age Armenian grave stones are present in Avagyan's works on canvas, while the 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”(Matenadaran, the symposium hall of the newly built subsidiary building of Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Old Manuscripts).
Besides artistic work, Avagyan taught fine arts in Sisian Children's Art School after Z. Khachatryan from 1981-2016. From 2010-2018 Ashot was curating works of megalithic site ''Zorats Karer historical-cultural reserve''.
Since 1988 he has been actively engaged in sociopolitical activities of Armenia, particularly Sisian. He was involved in local politics, elected as a member of City Council of Elders and has since 1990 been a member of Sisian committee of Armenian Revolutionary Federation․ Besides, artist has participated in First Nagorno-Karabakh War, 2016 Nagorno-Karbakh conflict and Second Nagorno-Karabakh War among Sisakan volunteer detachment of freedom fighters.
Early life and career
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 Children's Art School of Sisian, where he attended studios of E. Hakobjanyan, V. Stepanyan and Z. Khachatryan.
In 1975 Avagyan entered the Yerevan Art College after P. Terlemezyan, studying in studio of Samvel Petrosyan. From 1977 to 1979 he joined the Soviet Army and was at military service in Siberia. After graduation of Art College in 1981 he returned back to his hometown and started teaching at Children's Art School until 2016.
The early period of artist's work carried reflections and inspiration of French and Armenian fine arts of early 20th century.
In the frame of 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 First Nagorno-Karabakh War. After the first protests, Karabakh Committee of Sisian was established among the members being Ashot Minasyan, Masis Baghdasaryan, Artush Yesayan and others. Avagyan's artistic development was set on break as he concentrated his efforts in the war and later on in development of army as a coordinator of civil issues of Sisian's military unit. He fully returned back to art in 1998 quieting his service in military.
Fine Arts and Performances
The local cultural environment and the surroundings are fundamental for Ashot Avagyan’s artistic practice. Artist’s fascination with historic sites and 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 afterwards was developed into a gravel route, turning Ukhtasar petroglyphs into one of the most visited tourist attractions of Sisian.
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’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. 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.