The Russian Academy Of Arts

Organized to mark the 80th anniversary of the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Zaven Arshakuni, the exhibition features the artist’s paintings and graphic works of various years.

The name of the noted painter, graphic artist, set designer Zaven Arshakuni is associated with the Leningrad school of painting. He belongs to the generation of artists who made themselves known in the late 1950s actively promoting new ways in painting.

The artist’s biography is also closely connected with Leningrad-St. Petersburg where he was born, went through the siege of Leningrad and death of his parents. He was evacuated to his relatives in Erevan, but already in 1946 Arshakuni returned to Leningrad. In 1961 he graduated from I. Repin St. Petersburg State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His opposition to the official painting started with his diploma work “The Spring” not approved by the selection commission. That very summer he exhibited his canvas out of favor in Erevan, where it was appreciated and obtained by the Armenian State Picture Gallery. He defended his diploma work a year later.

His exhibition activity began in 1962, when Zaven Arshakuni became a member of the Leningrad branch of the Artists’ Union of Russia. In 1972, the exhibition of the liberal “Group of Eleven”, in which he participated together with E. Egoshin, V. Tyulenev and other artists of the 1960s, caused a scandal as their paintings were free from the ideology and means of expression permitted in the official art.

Besides easel paintings and drawings, where Arshakuni works in various genres and techniques, he has revealed his talent as a monumentalist, set designer, book illustrator. He has made set designs for nine performances in St. Petersburg theaters, illustrated six books of poems published by the Children’s Literature publishing house, created cartoons and drawings for monumental wall paintings and stained glasses. He is also keen on wood carving and porcelain painting.

Since 1992 Zaven Arshakuni has been a member of the Diaghilev Art Center in St. Petersburg, since 1995 – a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Modern Art. His works are in collections of more than 40 Russian museums, as well as museums in Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, in private collections in the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, China, South Korea and other countries.

print version