On November 7 Gafesjian Cultural Center for the Arts was inaugurated in a very pompous environment, which may become the greatest and most representative museum of modern arts in our capital city. It may become the greatest because it occupies a very good spot in the city; it occupies a large area, many halls on various floors, big investments and expensive exemplars. But it is hard to say whether this museum will really become a center of arts and it’s hard to say whether this will become center of art and whether it will attract people. Perhaps it won’t become famous by judging from the declarative statements of the representatives of the center. Indeed, Gerard Gafesjian has a passion for arts. And this already answers several questions. By welcoming the opening of a grand hall as a fact (finally not a restaurant or trade center is opened in our city but a center of arts) several questions originate immediately. It is strange but these questions don’t have monetary or political context (as we often see nowadays) but it relates to the arts. You walk in the hall, go up and down the elevators and tell to yourself that you have seen all that billionaire, benefactor and businessman Gafesjian has. So what? What else will make me come to this lofty hall and enter the building in a smiling and examining look of the personnel? Nothing extraordinary is expected. None of the exemplars will be refreshed. This center was just a fact which had to be fixed in the protocol. And it had been fixed. In general Armenians like protocols and those occupy a very unique place in our lives. However, if in other sectors when we put something in the protocol we put a period, in the art it’s different. We fix in the protocol a novelty and when we feel that it is already in our lives we move forward with a new energy. For example, when several years ago when the black cat of Fernando Botero appeared in Yerevan thanks to Gafesjian we realized that the city sculptures of our city are disappearing we realized that a sculpture is not only a rock-made monument but a little something else because it creates an environment. The humongous cat was looking at our city from above and smiling with content and quietness. It refreshed our city in terms of form and color. Afterwards, several more sculptures appeared on the cascade. The American-Armenian art admirer presented these statues to the city of Yerevan. And a certain density and jam of statues was noticed in the grove. The cascade has become a certain margin between the old stuff and refreshed sculptures. People were saying this is yours and that’s ours. Of course it wasn’t the business of the billionaire to expand the limits. It was actually the job of the mangers of the museum and the society in general. For example, people, who develop the art policy of the museum, indeed could have placed Ara Alekyan’s sculptures the “spider, horse or the bull” next to the flexible and monumental statues of Barri Flenagan. But doing this is not included in the services of the museum. The museum is not looking for art. It is only representing it. The art center has often quoted the words of Gafesjian, “every single item of this collection is a part of my heart and soul.” It is natural that the people, who visit the museum, which is after his name, would like to understand who the actual owner of this collection is, what he likes and what preferences he has. It is very difficult to understand this because the exemplars brought to Armenia are quite eclectic. The private collection of Cafesjian has several main branches – first the glass and secondly Arshille Gorky and then the prototypes of vessels and trains, the statues (among which the image of the African alligator, the author of which is an unknown master of the mid 20s). The artistic glass making, which is broadly presented at the center, is a very narrow branch of art and has quite a few followers. In the meantime, the glass is art and technology (also a filed for the use of light effects). And the Gafesjian art center is filled with glass items, the majority of which are the masterpieces of the Brekhtova-Libensky couple. The glass sculptures of various forms, colors have been made by the Czech designers as pieces of pure art by depriving the glass of the applicable function. Numerous Armenian designers do the same by minimizing the clay and decorative element as a material for sculpturing. If the Gafesjian art center is planning to periodically change the exposition and organize conceptual exhibitions (such as with the slogan “dialog of materials”) then the glass may be engaged in a quite interesting conversation with the rock for example. Or it may even “collide” with the shining canvasses of Minas Avetisyan. If the glass doesn’t enter the Armenian context then the humongous glass flowers and lofty colorful statues will remain as a sort of exotic art. And the looks of the visitors will not focus on them any more. Such observations are quite realistic because when in Armenia there are only a few vivid style and thematic museums (how can we not recall Mark Grigoryan’s art pieces. These pieces have never found their place in our city and had a tragic ending just like their authors’) art centers are not formed. The word center also assumes that there should also be suburbs, colonies and territories. There should be one path, in the existence of which the meaning of the center will be understandable. The center is a self-managing phenomenon at least in the art. Moreover, the center also has a character of deflecting. It can’t be stuck in the same place for too long. And when you appear in the Eagle hall of Gafesjian art center you can see the pieces of an American sculptor with Armenian descent Arshille Gorky. The ex-wives of legends will also participate in a question and answer session led by Michael De Marsche, Executive Director of the Gafesjian Center for the Arts. They will also sign copies of books each has written about their famous husbands (Boyd – known in pop circles as Eric Clapton’s muse for “Layla” was married to rock music’s legendary guitarist after she divorced Harrison). The grand opening will also unveil Armenia’s first major show of the works of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Armenian-American Arshille Gorky. Gorky was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide who watched his mother starve to death on a desert march forced by Ottoman Turks in 1915. From the personal Gafesjian collection, 16 drawings and 7 paintings by Gorky will be on display through January. “The many preliminary drawings and oil sketches in this exhibition provide unparalleled insight into Gorky’s unique working method,” said De Marsche. “Gorky’s complex, large-scale compositions of cohesive design and universal theme continue to be viewed as some of the finest examples of American art at mid-century.” And here a question comes up here. Why are the art pieces of Gorky presented in such a negligent manner? If, for example, one of the sketches of the famous “soul fly” then the authors of the exhibition should have at least showed the pattern of the whole piece. A small piece of that was brought to Armenia. Indeed, the Armenians are very thankful to Gafesjian for this present. But the fact is that our meeting with Arshille Gorky didn’t take place. Here perhaps it was worth being more cunning in order to feel the nerve and expression of Gorky. The current structure of this hall is so weak that it creates pain. We hope that objective of the mixers is not only the presentation of Gafesjian’s collection but also presentation of Gorky’s art. And so much can still be changed. However the center hardly has an objective like that. The opening ceremony already showed that preference is given to the beautiful and glamorous hue. But while the future of the main museum is in question, the inner territory of the Cascade – abandoned and bound for decay until rescued by Gafesjian’s foundation has been transformed into galleries that will, among other installations, house portions of Gafesjian’s exotic glass art collection, considered one of the most distinguished collections of the genre in the world. One of our best artists, for example, noticed that a serious gap exists between the art and old craft. Now many people are trying to convince the Armenians that the fashionable thing is the VIP and the exclusive and not the democratic items ever (it’s worth mentioning that there is a hall of sale of pop-items and is aimed at tourist service). It’s noteworthy that Gafesjian’s art center has a quite exclusive principle. A little “bomb” was found in the art center. The interrelation between the art and fashion has always been difficult and the struggle has been educative. This paradox shows that Swarovski hall of the center. An attempt is made to put down the value of glass, which has almost the same price as diamond and make it more available for the public. The Swarovski crystals, which are filled in net sacks and are hung from the ceiling, are demonstrated as raw material. The American designers called these crystals in the sacks “light socks”. And so the regular understanding of the fashion is broken and a new tendency is formed. So the newly opened art center in Armenia may become followers of this tendency. And so we should clearly understand the purpose of this center.
