Story of Two Women through Art and History at Armenian Museum

Apcar became a voice for the oppressed Armenians of the Ottoman Empire and began to write in various journals. By 1920, she had published nine books, many of which dealt with the Armenian question politically, including On the Cross of Europe’s Imperialism: Armenia Crucified (1918), and thanks largely to her efforts, Japan recognized the independence of the first Republic of Armenia in 1920. In turn, the new republic appointed her as its honorary consul in Japan. She thus became the first female Armenian diplomat (during the same year that the US finally gave women the right to vote), though she lost this post in a few years with the Sovietization of Armenia.

Prior to receiving this distinction, Apcar helped Armenian refugees make their way to safety, including many who came via Siberia to Japan in order to emigrate to the United States. She vouched personally for them and helped them obtain travel papers. This is where the connection with Berjouhi Kailian begins, for Kailian, born with the last name Siroonian in Kghi in the Ottoman Empire, fled the genocide as a child on her mother Alem’s back to Yerevan. Her siblings were lost on the way, but her mother then took her via the Trans-Siberian railroad to a refugee camp in Vladivostok, Russia. Apcar helped bring the two to Yokohama and then arranged for them to take a ship, the “Mexico Maru,” to Seattle, Washington.

Ultimately, the Kailians traveled to Weymouth, Mass., to join Berj’s mother’s two brothers. Berjouhi graduated from Weymouth High School and then the Vesper George School of Art in Boston in 1936. After marrying, she lived in Paris with her husband Vahan Kailian and attended the Julien School of Fine Arts. When she returned to the US, she ran an art gallery in Hingham, Mass. and after selling her store, went back to school again at the age of 65 to study art at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and then Tufts University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1984. She kept on creating art throughout her life.

Munson pointed out that Apcar and Kailian’s lives only briefly intersected in 1919 and they never saw one another again. Kailian’s descendants were not even aware of Apcar and her key role in helping their ancestors. However, Kailian’s paintings and prints, many of which were donated to the Armenian Museum by Kailian and her family, often deal with the events of her early life. Munson suggests that the earth tones Kailian uses might have some connection with her father’s fate. He was forced to dig his own grave and was buried alive.

A painting with many arches may reflect Kailian’s experience as a child of getting lost and being found again in St. Sarkis Church in Yerevan. Kailian only visited Armenia again much later in life, three times.

Munson paired quotes from Kailian’s interviews with her art works to try to give viewers greater insight into Kailian’s world view. In some way, Kailian at one point had implied, her approach of gouging and scratching might be a way for her to get out the pain of her childhood.