Journey Through Art: A Daniel Varoujan Hejinian ‘Peace of Art’ Exhibit

BOSTON, Mass.—From Sept. 16-Oct. 16, the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan will host a Peace of Art exhibit by artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, organized by the Armenian Ministry of the Diaspora. This is the first Peace of Art exhibit outside of the United States, and celebrates the 23rd anniversary of the independence of Armenia, while also commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

The exhibition will include art work from the Peace of Art collection, Romantic Expressionist paintings, drawings, graphics, and a series of paintings dedicated to Armenia depicting the tricolor flag. The art work from the Peace of Art collection reflects human suffering and the triumph of the human spirit, as well as the desire for peace, in a series of sophisticated compositions of over-imposed symbolic images. The Romantic Expressionist paintings reflect the joyous state of mind one may accomplish in times of peace, the seduction and romance in the gardens of Varoujan’s imagination, and musical symphonies of colors.

With this exhibition, Varoujan has created a triptych in celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the independence of Armenia, with the title “From Genocide to Independence,” in which a young woman in the center represents the young Republic, with her open arms reaching up to doves, a symbol of peace. To the left is a representation of the 1988 earthquake that destroyed thousands of lives. “The painting on the right depicts the tricolor as an eagle’s triumphant flight entering Artsakh, where doves fly in the peaceful sky while the Armenian army is marching a glorious parade,” said Varoujan.

“The Crime of the Century” is the title of another triptych commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The center piece is a dramatic composition depicting the battle in the name of peace. Hands are extended. Horse and man bite each other. Humanity is cruel and intolerant for its racial, ethnic, and religious differences. Men have been chased by their own shadows and beaten by their own dreams. In the middle of the painting to the left is a group of people shaped as a mushroom cloud. Deported, their land has been taken and their families killed. Their terrified eyes are open yet blinded by the terror they’ve seen; their hands cover their mouths, speechless in describing the crime they’ve witnessed. The painting to the right reminds us how fragile peace is, like a paper dove in a child’s hands. Safe and loved in his mother’s arms, he releases his toy and lets it float in the wind. There are a group of people above them in a different stage of life; there’s pain, suffering, and insecurity. They extend their hands waiting for the return of the dove. “They are waiting for recognition and justice,” Varoujan explained.

Varoujan was born in Aleppo, Syria, to parents who survived the genocide. As a young man, at the age of 19, he went to Armenia to study art. After completing his master’s at the Gegharvestaterakan Institute in Yerevan, he left Soviet Armenia and moved to the United States, to the Boston area. He was later joined in the U.S. by his wife and their daughter. Soon thereafter his son was born. The family has kept close ties to their Armenian culture, and Armenian is the language spoken in the home.

Daniel Varoujan Hejinian has painted religious murals for seven Armenian churches in the United States. The Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church in Chelmsford, Mass., alone contains 47 murals. Varoujan’s Romantic Expressionist paintings have been exhibited in many fine art galleries in the United States, from Boston to Miami, and his paintings are represented in several fine art collections in the United States and abroad.

In 1996, Varoujan designed and posted the first Armenian Genocide commemorative billboard in the diaspora, bringing the genocide out in the open to the community at large, calling for its recognition. To this date, every year the commemorative billboards are displayed around the Boston area. In 2003, Varoujan created and founded Peace of Art, Inc., a non-profit educational organization charged with bringing awareness to the human condition through art. Peace of Art has conducted several art exhibits in government buildings, including the Massachusetts State House and city halls in several cities; institutions of higher education, such as Harvard University; private galleries; and at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, Mass. The Armenian Genocide awareness campaign became one of the projects of Peace of Art, and since 2004, it has sponsored the commemorative billboards. In 2010, Varoujan donated the complete series of framed billboards to the Armenian Museum of America as part of their permanent collection. Images of the complete series can be viewed by visiting www.PeaceofArt.org.

When the members of the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee of Merrimack Valley invited Varoujan to design a monument for the city of Lowell, they had yet to see his ability to connect art to the history of his people, and to the city where the monument was to be installed. In May 2014, his “A Mother’s Hands” monument to commemorate the Armenian Genocide was unveiled in front of Lowell’s City Hall, to the acclaim of elected officials and members of the community. The monument depicts a mother’s hands in bronze, knitting into a cross-stone. For the first time in the diaspora, an Armenian Genocide commemorative monument was installed on government property.

For more information about the artist and Peace of Art projects, visit www.PeaceofArt.org. Images of the art work from the Romantic Expressionist series can be viewed at www.CollectorsPalette.com.