Akop Gukasyan 1962

Editor: This striking oil portrait, "Akop Gukasyan," was painted in 1962 by Martiros Sarian. The use of color is really catching my eye, and there's something about the unfinished sketch behind the man that gives it a kind of dreamlike quality. What are your thoughts on this portrait? Curator: It's fascinating how Sarian situates this portrait within a specific socio-political context. Consider 1962, the height of the Khrushchev Thaw in the Soviet Union. Artists were granted slightly more freedom of expression. Editor: So you see this portrait as representative of that brief period of artistic liberalization? Curator: Precisely! The bold color palette, the almost Fauvist handling of paint, speaks to a loosening of Socialist Realist constraints. The unfinished figure behind the portrait could be seen as a veiled reference to the past, the traditions from which artists were tentatively emerging. How does that figure relate to Akop? Editor: It is a woman, perhaps a nod to cultural history beyond a Soviet aesthetic. It gives more identity and hints at the rich history and tradition, and it may have provided identity to Akop. The woman looms, looking down at the foreground subject. The use of an image behind could allow viewers to access some hidden knowledge about Akop, some piece of identity perhaps otherwise unknowable to viewers. Curator: Exactly! The ambiguity is critical. We are left to imagine, to speculate about his identity as situated within a complicated matrix of cultural norms, evolving social practices, and of course the very public and institutional shaping of art. What would a viewer during this time period think of that sketch? Editor: It certainly would offer the opportunity to ponder new perspectives, particularly that which includes the historic, the private, the restricted! I now understand how this "unfinished" part shapes a political story that would have allowed many interpretations in a constantly monitored art community. Curator: And Sarian offers a small window into this politically charged conversation through what is included, and what is seemingly dismissed.