Enchantment of the Sun 1905

Martiros Sarian created this oil on cardboard painting, Enchantment of the Sun, in 1935. Sarian, an Armenian painter, spent much of his life navigating between the cultural centers of Russia and his homeland, and his art reflects this tension. This landscape, bathed in a warm, almost dreamlike light, uses bold colors and simplified forms, which were the visual codes of the Russian avant-garde. But its subject is deeply rooted in Armenian culture. The figures atop the building and in the foreground are likely Armenian, their traditional clothing and demeanor hinting at the enduring customs of the region. We might ask, what does it mean to depict a traditional culture using the language of modernism? Is it a celebration? Or a critique? To understand this, we would need to delve into the history of Armenia in the 1930s, a period marked by both cultural revival and political repression under Soviet rule. Art history gives us the tools to investigate these questions, using sources like letters, archives, and cultural studies to understand the complex relationship between art and society.