Is artistic talent hereditary or is it learned? In families with several great musicians, like the Bach or the Strauss families, and in the visual arts, as in the cases of Italian Renaissance painters like Fra Filippo Lippi and son Filippino or Dutch and Flemish masters Pieter Bruegel the Elder and sons Peter and Jan, creativity seems to have passed from father to son. In modern Armenia, too, many families may boast successive generations of fine artists: Archi Galentz and Marina Vagharshyan as well as the Elibekians represent third and fourth generation talents.
Recently art lovers in Yerevan and Beirut were treated to exhibitions of works by three generations of one family, that of Nona Gabrielyan and her late husband Van Soghomonyan, their daughter Lilit Soghomonyan and her husband, Gagik Ghazanchyan, and their son Guy. The solo exhibition of Nona Gabrielyan’s works took place in the second half of September in the Armenian capital and was followed in December by the show in Lebanon of works by daughter and son-in-law, as well as grandson Guy.
First Generation
Nona Gabrielyan’s solo exhibition in Yerevan was officially opened on September 12 in the Grand Hall of the Union of Artists of Armenia, by Suren Safaryan, Chairman of the Union. In attendance were members of the entire family, as well as many friends, fellow artists and art lovers, representatives of the German and Lebanese Embassies, the First Channel of Armenian Public Television and press. The magnificent catalogue produced in Armenian, Russian, German, and English was presented at the vernissage.
Not only painter and sculptor, Gabrielyan is also a published author, whose works have appeared in Armenian, Russian and German. The exhibition concluded with a literary evening, during which she presented her books of poetry and prose published between 2003 and 2017. During the event, opened by writer Sevak Olaniyan (“Aramazd”), Gabrielyan also read as-yet unpublished autobiographical short stories about the life of an artist and the extraordinary events that accompany it. These texts were written between 1992 and 2022, while she and her husband were living in Wiesbaden, Germany and were completed after her return to Yerevan.
In the opening pages of the sumptuous catalogue for her exhibition, Nona Gabrielyan reflects on the primacy of creativity in human history, from the Stone Age to the present. Quoting, “In the beginning was the Word,” she writes, “The Word is the first step in creating the world. Through the Word ideas are born that fill the world with meaning. Thus, humanity follows its path … united by a single impulse: the desire to create. My reflections on creativity,” she continues, “are an attempt to comprehend its profound nature, place, and significance, in each person’s life. Creativity is a gift, a chance, an opportunity to leave behind a trace or simply a memory. And each of us is free to choose whether to use it or not.”
