Hovhannes Avetisyan

He was born on 12 July 1939 in Gyumri (Leninakan) Soviet Armenia. Hovhannes's father went to the war and didn't return. When he was only one year old, his mother died. He and his four sisters remained without parents. He had a grandmother and she brought them up. They had a very hard life. In 1946, Hovhannes Avetisian entered the school and he left it in 1956. Meanwhile, he studied at the art school after Merkurov.

So Hovhannes had to earn a living for himself. In his early years, he began to work at the furniture factory. He worked from early morning until late at night to help his family. In 1957, he went to Yerevan and entered Terlemezyan College of Fine Arts, but he didn't go to study there, thinking about his sisters and an old grandmother. In 1964, Hovhannes Avetisian began to work at school N 29 after M.Mashtots as an art teacher. In 1970-1972, he founded the art gallery at school, which was the first art centre in his native town at that time.

Avetissyan took part in the exhibitions to present Armenian’s Art in Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, India, Syria, Finland, Canada and Italy in [967-1986. He also took part in the exhibitions in the USSR: Kiev, Tbilisi, Vilnius, Moscow, St.Petersburg and Warsaw. His first exhibition took place in 1974, however, he got to be famous and known after his second individual exhibition which was held in Yerevan in 1977. Numerous specialists and visitors to the exhibition appreciated greatly the well-established artist of bright individuality and his works. He was fond of painting Shirak’s landscapes, its mountains and fields, he liked to paint ‘’small’’ people’s portraits. His large composition canvases, make a great impression. Hovhannes was one of the first artists who dedicated the Great Genocide -‘’Der Zor’’, ‘’Komitas’’, ‘’Antuni’’, etc. his series of Still Life. Hovhannes was also good at doing the joiner’s work. The furniture made by him is of various shapes with delicate and luxurious carvings. Unfortunately, the artist's art gallery was destroyed and many of his paintings were stolen, and spoiled during the earthquake 1988, in Gyumri-Leninakan. In spite of the difficulties after earthquake, he continued creating in his new gallery from 1988 to 1997. He was a man of hard destiny, but a winner, who was equally talented both as an artist and a poet. Besides paintings, Hovhannes Avetisian wrote poems and his collection of poems was published posthumously in 2002. He committed his whole life to Fine Arts. He died in 2000.

• Հովհաննես Ավետիսյան

• Official Website Hovhannes Avetisyan