Church Karmravor of VII century 1956

Martiros Sarian’s painting of the Church Karmravor, though undated, comes to us in thick strokes of earthy pigment and cerulean blues. I can imagine Sarian outside the church, squinting in the sun, dabbing at the canvas and trying to capture the scene before him. There’s a strong feeling of place, of being rooted to the land, in the way the church almost emerges out of the landscape, echoing the forms of the hills in the background. I bet he mixed those ochres and creams himself to get it just right. That small figure in blue heading towards the church door! I can’t help but feel the artist's empathy for the human figure. It's like Sarian’s in conversation with artists of the past, all the way up to Fairfield Porter in the mid-century, who painted the everyday world around them, asking us to see the sacred in the mundane. Painting becomes a kind of prayer, connecting us to something beyond ourselves.