Still Life 

Gohar Fermanyan, an artist from Armenia, painted this still life during the Soviet era. It depicts a bountiful assortment of fruit, evoking themes of prosperity and abundance. The visual codes here—the overflowing basket, the ripe grapes, the carefully arranged peaches—speak to a specific cultural context. Armenia, historically an agrarian society, deeply values the fruits of the land. During the Soviet period, such imagery could also be read as propaganda, promoting the success of collective farming and the benefits of the socialist system. Was Fermanyan simply painting a beautiful arrangement of fruit, or was she also subtly engaging with the political landscape of her time? To understand this work more fully, we need to look into the history of art institutions in Armenia during the Soviet era. Archival research into exhibition records, artists' biographies, and official state publications can reveal the complex interplay between artistic expression and political ideology. Art, after all, is never created in a vacuum. Its meanings are always contingent on the social and institutional contexts in which it is made and received.