NORTH READING, Mass.—With the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide next April, many are making plans.
Playwrights are busy putting scripts together. Authors are writing books. Commemorations are being planned. Movies are in the works. Whether any are produced is yet another matter.
Internationally renowned artist Martin Barooshian is making a contribution in the way he knows best. The 84-year-old specialist has created a new work of art to specifically mark the occasion.
More than that, he’s giving it away as a free gift to the community as a commemorative poster that contains a message that will be meaningful to everyone: “100 Year Commemoration, The Armenian Nation Lives On.”
Barooshian is making it available at no charge to both individuals and organizations. He’s labeled it “The Armenian Sphinx.”
“While many think of the Sphinx in terms of Egyptian history and mythology, some of the earliest known Sphinx images and artifacts are from our Armenian ancestors—the Urartians,” Barooshian points out.
“I guess the Egyptians just had a better marketing team than we did,” he chuckled. “But in mythological terms, the Sphinx is a symbol of survival and rebirth. I can’t think of a more appropriate statement to make on the 100th anniversary of the genocide.”
The poster is being used by Barooshian’s church, St. Gregory of North Andover, as well as other churches, groups, and organizations across the country. He is providing the poster image free to anyone who wants it—to print out and use however it best serves their intentions.
There are two versions: the poster itself and a second replica that has an empty space at the bottom, which allows organizations to place information about an event or a message.
While there is a low-resolution copy on Barooshian’s website (www.martinbarooshian.org), anyone interested in receiving a digital version suitable for printing on their own can request a copy by visiting the artist’s website.
“It’s important for me to make a contribution in the way I know best, whose central message is one of life affirmation rather than tragically centered,” he continued. “I believe very strongly that while we must remember who and what we lost, it’s very important to tell the world that we have survived, that we remember, and that we have been reborn. Maybe not in Historic Armenia, but we’re still here, and maybe one day…”
Barooshian is an internationally regarded surrealist painter and printmaker. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum in New York, Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian, and other leading museums throughout the world.
A book is being published in 2015 entitled, Martin Barooshian: A Complete Catalogue of the Graphic Works, 1948-1970, by Michael Russo.
Born in 1929 in Chelsea, Mass., Barooshian has distinguished himself as an artist whose great vitality and willingness to explore is matched only by his technical finesse. His versatility in every graphic medium has extended itself to woodcuts, etchings, engravings, lithographs, and silk-screens.
Over the past 55 years, he’s been fascinated by what he calls fantastic art and surrealism, citing others like Arshile Gorky as contributing to the development of his style.
“I’d be bored to tears if I wasn’t involved with art,” he said. “It’s been my obsession for decades and continues to build self-esteem. My art is designed to make people think.”
Tom Vartabedian
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I applaud Martin for his generosity in donating his art work on behalf of Genocide recognition.
And let’s not overlook that Tom Vartabedian “… has volunteered his services for the past 46 years as a columnist and correspondent with the Armenian Weekly,…”
We need more volunteers, more people who are willing to donate their time and their skills to further our just claims.
bravo and thanks to both these men.