ABOUT US

During the Soviet period, under the monopoly of socialist realism, modern art was prohibited in all its forms. For that reason, the government provided no financial support to this cultural institution. Thus, the museum came into being thanks to donations from Armenian artists.

Works by the generation of the 1960s, particularly Minas Avetisyan, Ashot Hovhannisyan, Martin Petrosyan, Hakob Hakobyan, Gayane Khachaturyan, Vruyr Galstyan, Rudolf Khachatryan and Ashot Bayandur, still form the core of the museum display today.

Over time, the museum collection was expanded through donations by artists of the 1980s: Sargis Hamalbashyan, Artur and Ararat Sargsyan, Marine Dilanyan, Albert Hakobyan, Samvel Baghdasaryan, Arevik Arevshatyan, Ruben Grigoryan, Kamo Nigaryan, Armen Gevorgyan, Tigran Matulyan, Teni Vardanyan, Gabriel Manukyan, Vahan Rumelyan, Nina Khemchyan, Ayvaz Avoyan and others.

In 2004, thanks to benefactor Grigor Muradyan, the museum received works by the well-known American-based painter and sculptor Emil Kazaz; in 2010, the Kapan Copper-Molybdenum Combine donated sculptures by the Canada-based artist Karen Petrosyan.

The museum publishing activity is also noteworthy. Under the direction of Henrik Igityan, the museum staff published a number of albums in recent years: “Kochar”, “A. Bazhbeuk-Melikyan”, “From Hovnatanyan to Minas”, “Museum”, “Armenian Palette I”, “Armenian Palette II”, “Minas Avetisyan”, “Vruyr Galstyan”, “Ashot Hovhannisyan”, the illustrated book “Yerevan Modern Art Museum”, as well as individual catalogs of artists of the 1980s.

Today, as always, the Modern Art Museum welcomes its visitors. Alongside viewing the works of art, they can receive professional commentary in Armenian, Russian and foreign languages.

From the day of its foundation to the present, the museum has been visited by many distinguished figures from art and science. All of them have noted that the museum has its own face, its own probing view of the world, which distinguishes it from many similar museums. Among the honored visitors were academician and Hermitage director Boris Piotrovsky, writer Chingiz Aitmatov, Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian artist Renato Guttuso, Italian poet, writer and screenwriter Tonino Guerra, Bochum Museum director Peter Spielmann, as well as renowned Armenian figures William Saroyan, Tigran Mansuryan, Aghasi Ayvazyan and others.

Writing about the importance of the museum foundation in 1979, the well-known Russian art historian Alexander Kamensky noted: “...The museum was initially a utopian idea: its initiators had neither a building for exhibitions nor funds to buy artists’ works. But they had something more important and valuable: the conviction that Armenia needed to see and understand the image of its own art in our time...”

In recent years, the museum collection has also been enriched with works not only by Armenian but also by foreign artists: Talin Zabunyan (France), Sam Grigoryan (Germany), Harutyun Jinanyan / Jino (Russia), Vache Demirchian (France), Laurent Nissou Sun (France), SIB (France), Christine Hagopian (France), Tipasar (France), Charis Garabedian (France), Sebastiano (USA), Ziba Afshar (USA), Michael Gorman (USA), Gary John (USA), Karen Bystedt and Chris Brown (USA), Hayk Mesropyan (Switzerland), Onik Atamyan (England) and others.