SAFAA hosted master classes on Sculpture and Painting by Chinese artists
In 2016-2017 the festival organized by “Gorges of Lori” Compatriotic Union was also attended by Chinese artists from the Academy of the city of Nankinwho participated in the pleinairin Armenia. The previous year, five Armenian artists, all of them SAFAA graduates- the president of Artists’ Union of Armenia Suren Safaryan, the secretary of the Union VahagnGalstyan, LevonAbrahamyan, Suren Amiryan and Ara Hakobyan participated in the open air painting within “Great Silk Road” project in Nankin. The project being of an utmost importance to Chinese people, aims at reviving the ties between the Silk Road countries.
The decision to introduce to the Armenian public the working-creative results of mutual visits was made jointly in the form of Armenian-Chinese exhibition. It will be dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and will take place on November 7, at the exhibition hall of Artists’ Union. The other day the Chinese artists will hold a master class at the same hall, for the students of State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia, State College of Fine Arts after P. Terlemezyan and Fine Arts School after H. Kojoyan.
“Taking advantage of Chinese artists’ visit to Armenia, we decided to strengthen our ties by inviting them to conduct master classes at SAFAA”. We hope to enlarge our cooperation involving other fine arts educational institutions as well, even establishing thestudent exchange process”, says the secretary of Artists’ Union, VahagnGalstyan.
On October 5 Chinese artists Vang Chao and Meng Lee held master classes for the SAFAA students from Sculpture and Painting departments.Vang Chao is a famous sculptor in China and a Professor at the Academy in Nankin. This ancient Chinese city played an important role in different periods of the country’s history; it has been one of the five powerful capitals of China. Nankin has been occupied by Japanese forces during World War II, and has been subjected to barbarism, massacre of the population during the second Japanese-Chinese War. The Museum of Genocide opened here in peacetime where the majority of art works, large-scale bas-reliefs belonging to Vang Chao. He is also the author of numerous statues and sculptures set in various cities of China. It took about two hours for the sculptor to successfully finish the image of the Armenian model; he sometimes used to ask for students’ help, and one of them was jokingly told that his name would also be mentioned among the authors.
Meng Lee has studied painting at St. Petersburg Fine Arts Academy after Repin and to some extent bears theinfluence of traditional Russian painting. The portrait of SAFAA student GarolinSemerjian was the result of free demonstration of realistic style.
Melanya Badalyan
Translated by Naira Stepanyan
