He is glorious but incomprehensible - Kamensky said about Bazhbeuk-Melikian (video)
Critics and people do not understand that Bazhbeuk-Melikian’s is one of the most brilliant and romantic authors of the centenary. “He is glorious but incomprehensible,” said famous art critic and historian Aleksandr Kamensky. An exhibition entitled “Bazhbeuk-Melikians: Two Generations” opened at the National Gallery of Armenia. The exhibition is dedicated to Armenian distinguished painter Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikian’s 125th birth anniversary and to his creative family Lavinia, Zuleyka and Vazgen. “… I saw a painting in Bazhbeuk’s house, which had no resemblance with that of ours… I did not see Masis, Alagyaz, treets and flowers or men in it… there were only women, naked, half naked in ‘emotional’ positions, looking at you with a sly grin… they were sensual, inaccessible, enchanting…,” his pupil Edward Isabekyan wrote in his memoirs. Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikian’s solo exhibition, which was sponsored by Charents and Drambyan, opened in Yerevan in 1935. However, Isabekyan says it did not get much response, the so-called ‘decent’ people kept silent. “He preferred to solve problems in painting himself. He ridiculed vulgar nationalists, who would immediately stop being national artists if geographic location was removed from their paintings,” Minas wrote about Bazhbeuk-Melikian. “Genes did their work and his three children chose his profession. Lavinia, who was named after Titian's daughter, was attracted to portrait painting. The exhibition includes some 100 works from the NGA’s permanent expositions and storages as well as from family and private collections. The exhibition will run until October 19.
