Toward Purpose: Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Peace of Art Organization

In 2018, with the participation of the Ministry of Diaspora, the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Norway in the Republic of Armenia received a gift from the Government of the Republic of Armenia to the Government of the Kingdom of Norway – a portrait of Fridtjof Nansen by Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, entitled ‘Nansen, Bridge of Friendship and Peace.’ The painting expresses the friendship of the Armenian and Norwegian nations.

In 2019, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian handed over to the French Ambassador to Armenia Varoujan Hejinian’s canvas entitled ‘Aznavour: Bridge of Friendship’ for transfer to the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, as a symbol of permanent friendship between the two countries.

Hejinian is highly regarded at home and abroad. He has received many awards and medals throughout his life for his efforts to promote peace through his art, as well as for his romantic expressive paintings that transcend the boundaries of place and time.

Considering that he is a gifted artist, educator, and inspiration to the American-Armenian community in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Supreme Court has recognized Varoujan Hejinian’s many contributions to the Armenian-American community, his lifelong work, and his art of serving peace and justice.”

Videos, Avanesyan Speech

The event was accompanied by two videos, the first about the achievements of the organization, and the second about the Peace of Art collection – the use of art as a tool to raise awareness of the human condition to prevent homelessness, hunger, violence against women, terrorism and genocide.

Karen Avanesyan, the Head of the Diaspora Potential Mapping and Involvement Department of the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, warmly congratulated the 25 years of activity of the Peace of Art organization on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Commissioner Zareh Sinanyan.

He said: “A quarter of a century has passed since Daniel Varoujan Hejinian initiated the display of the first large billboard informing about the Armenian Genocide in the United States of America, calling for its international recognition. From that day on, every year, Mr. Hejinian and his associates display billboards in public places in the United States, which silently but at the same time very eloquently informed the public about the reality of the Armenian Genocide. Many of us have seen them on various media platforms and social networks.

After all, as a result of the years of active work, in 2004, Mr. Hejinian officially registered the non-profit organization, Peace of Art, which continued to work even harder, particularly in the United States and Armenia, adopting a new form of civilized struggle, to be compassionate and tolerant of the public and to choose fair paths to achieve the goal.

One of the main activities of the organization became the support of genocide prevention. Over the past 25 years, the organization has installed more than 100 informative billboards about the Armenian Genocide in the United States.

The organization has organized about 3 dozen exhibitions, numerous lectures, and other programs in the United States and Armenia. As a result, it has been awarded many high awards by a number of authoritative institutions, including the state institutions of the Republic of Armenia.

We wish you more success in all future initiatives to continue your cherished and pro-Armenian work that started 25 years ago, with the same spirit, energy and diligence.”

Asatryan Speech

The translation of a speech by Ruzan Asatryan, writer, publicist, public figure, academician of the International Academy of Nature and Society follows.

“Dear Varoujan,

I welcome your significant event today. Yes, it’s very important, because peace is the oxygen of humanity on the planet. You have chosen ‘Peace of Art,’ because art is a divine force leading to Parnassus. The talented radiance of your mind includes the universal outbursts of both the universal and the personal pulse, which have been highly valued by the art-loving society.

A child of parents who survived the Armenian Genocide, Varoujan re-indulged in his diligence and talent, as he turned his nation’s peace into a vital balm not only in his paintings, but also in his honorable public charitable work for 25 years. Varoujan’s work on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by US President Biden is undeniable, since he showed special details about the Genocide on 100 billboards and distributing it in various US cities. In those days, the painting of the great philanthropist Nansen, a worthy friend of the Armenian people, who issued a passport to the Armenians in exile, had a great response, in which Varoujan presented the strong need for peace of art with the golden strokes of his brush. It is one thing when a person is talented and another thing when he is a soldier of peace in front of his ancestors. I am glad that we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the organization in our homeland. I congratulate you and wish you new initiatives.

The Heartfelt Words of Poet and Architect Tatios Yessayan

“This beautiful picture, that you saw and loved, is really a symbol of the peace pioneer painter Mr. Varoujan Hejinian. Here is the history of the Armenian nation, which is presented in colors. See how Mr. Hejinian’s brush changes from black to blue: the black as the suffering of the Armenian nation, and the blue as the rebirth of the nation. And here is the proud Armenian woman with her native flag waving in the blue and raising her hands as if calling home birds like a Diaspora Armenian alien in the distance.

Hejinian lives in a world of different colors. He loves all the colors of the Great Painter God. He loves the seven colors of the rainbow. He prefers the colors that are missing in the rainbow – the ‘mysterious black’ that Hejinian immortalizes in his black pencil drawings.

Hejinian sees everything with the far-sighted eye of his soul. He believes that optimism is the key to peace, and that at the end of all anxious phenomena, peace will surely prevail, as the waves of the sea calm down, ending at the crumbling of the rock on the shore.

Hejinian has a sensitive heart and a keen eye. He is taciturn, but with his silence he understands a lot. Last week we were walking together in a garden, we saw a laurel tree with only one red rose on top. Involuntarily, the two of us stood and watched. ‘Varouj,’ I said, ‘What do you think?’ He took a deep breath. ‘Something,’ he said. He was silent and continued watching. It was a mystery to me what moved him. Was it the loneliness of the rose that was still waiting for the gentle gaze of a passer-by or other roses next to him? I think that all these thoughts had invaded Varoujan’s inner world together and were already being drawn on the poster of his soul.

Yes, Hejinian’s inner world is different. It is the inner world of a great artist that is completely loving, peaceful and compassionate, and all this is reflected in his wonderful works that we watch, enjoy and admire.

Let us honor Mr. Hejinian with applause. If the Frenchman is proud of his Matisse, if the Netherlands is proud of his Van Koch, if Armenia is proud of his Martiros Sarian, Roslin and Kochar, we Western Armenians are also proud of Varoujan Hejinian.  Let his creative brush remain!

Suren Danielyan

The director of the Diaspora Scientific-Educational Center, Professor/Dr. Suren Danielyan, in his speech mentioned the parallel between the poet Daniel Varoujan, who called for fight, and the artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, who a century later peacefully continued the struggle for the welfare and justice of humanity, condemning the genocide to prevent future genocides.

Conclusion

Hejinian responded at the end of the event as follows.

“On behalf of the Peace of Art organization and me, I would like to thank all of you for participating in the event dedicated to the 25th anniversary of our organization.

For Armenians, April is a month of mourning and sad memories. Every Armenian living abroad feels in his soul and essence the suffering and injustice to which he is personally subjected. In addition, the storm of genocide along with the massacre of one and a half million, scattered another one million Armenians to the four corpses of the world, each of which already has its own victims.

I am one of them. From my father’s side, my paternal uncle was hanged, my aunt suffering from tuberculosis died on the way to exile, my mother’s whole family was lost in Der Zor irretrievably, and I am a child of a migrant. Our fathers and grandfathers had a house, a garden, a pasture, but we were left with a longing for dry bread, under tin sheets, whistling with rain water and trembling winds blowing through the cracks. All of these are lived realities, clear and unambiguous.

I am the child of that tortured generation and my cells are made up of suffering and pain. That pain will linger until the weight of justice begins to weigh heavily and good people multiply to listen to our grievances. Every Armenian has his just complaint and other ways to express it.

My ability was also very modestly these billboards, through which I hope to have taken a step in favor of justice. We must condemn the crime in order to prevent new crimes.

I would like to add a small note that I am an Armenian artist, not only by talent but also in spirit, in other words a cosmopolitan, because art can’t cage with its creator within its own narrow borders, but like a dove of peace it flies over the souls of all peoples, with the olive message of love and brotherhood.

How good it would be if the world’s political leaders were artists. Then we would have a bouquet of peoples with a much more human face.

I firmly hope that one day the Turkish people, having perpetrated the ‘Great Crime’ of the past, will condemn it with all righteous people and, extending a friendly hand to the Armenian people, will confess the ‘unacknowledged crime’.”

The event was concluded by Republic of Armenia Honored Artist and Conservatory Professor Armenuhi Seyranyan and Symphony Orchestra violinist Sona Sokhikyan.