Ararat from Byurakan 1957

Editor: Martiros Sarian's "Ararat from Byurakan," painted in 1957, an oil-on-canvas plein-air piece... I’m struck by how dreamlike the mountain appears, almost floating above the landscape. What do you see in this painting? Curator: Ah, yes, a dreamscape indeed! To me, this work breathes of longing. The colours are potent, almost aggressively joyful – a love letter painted onto the canvas, to a mountain that carries so much weight in Armenian history and culture. Notice how Sarian simplifies the forms, almost distilling the essence of the mountain. Have you considered the emotional landscape Sarian crafts? Editor: Emotional landscape… that's a good way to put it! I hadn't really thought about it that way. It feels less like a picture of a mountain and more like a feeling *of* the mountain, if that makes any sense. Is that intentional, do you think? Curator: Absolutely! This is more than just visual reportage; it is memory and reverence made manifest with expressive color. See the rosy hues creeping in? It's like Sarian is coaxing the memory out of hiding. It speaks to displacement and belonging. It poses a poignant question, how does a painter paint longing? Editor: It’s fascinating how he uses colour and form to evoke such strong emotions. This artwork shows there's always a story, isn’t there, layers of meaning beneath what we simply see? Curator: Precisely! It makes one think what does a place mean to the people connected to it. A visual poem on belonging and remembrance and, isn't that always the goal, for art to be remembered?