Rain in Early May 1940

Curator: This is "Rain in Early May" by Martiros Sarian, painted in 1940. It’s an oil painting. What are your first thoughts? Editor: Immediately, it feels incredibly nostalgic, doesn't it? The hazy light, the ochre paths. It reminds me of childhood summers somehow, a half-remembered warmth and ease. Curator: That warmth probably comes from Sarian's distinct use of color, a stylistic inheritance, you could say, of Armenian artistic traditions blending East and West. There’s also something inherently human connected with land. Editor: Yes, the land feels lived-in, embraced. But there is that touch of sadness that comes with remembering an older world that is in the process of disappearing. See the figures emerging in the background? Curator: Indeed. Sarian's simplification of form gives his work its powerful expressiveness. Figures, landscapes, objects, they all share equal footing. Their purpose within the visual order seems linked to what he’s trying to remind us about what came before us. Editor: The way the trees are almost vibrating with light; you can feel the rain's freshness. But you can see beyond the beauty, hints of what Armenian landscape represented over time, beyond geography. Do you know where this might have been painted? Curator: Given that it was painted in 1940 and the artist's heritage, Yerevan is a probable inspiration, a recurring motif throughout his life. His personal artistic mission could be considered aligned with what Armenia faced across the first half of the 20th Century. Editor: It makes sense. Like a homeland he carried within him. Almost archetypal, this sense of place... layered. Curator: Precisely, each symbol a piece of a larger, interwoven memory. He connects modernism with memory in powerful and subtle ways. Editor: Well, looking at it, I’m filled with the strange joy that only slightly melancholy art can bring. It really grows with each viewing. Curator: Agreed. I feel like each time I come back to it, another piece of its story comes into focus, a familiar but distant cultural inheritance is refreshed, renewed.