Exhibit Featuring Saroyan Artworks Opens at Armenian Museum Following Donation from Joan Agajanian Quinn

Following the donation of Ruben Amirian’s “Homage to Mesrop Mashtots,” a 14-foot composite work celebrating the Armenian alphabet, art collector and Museum Trustee Joan Agajanian Quinn has gifted two watercolors by literary genius William Saroyan and two drawings from his son Aram Saroyan to the Armenian Museum of America. All five works are now on display in the new exhibit “My Name Is Saroyan,” inspired by Armenian literary culture both past and present.

“After the success of our 2022 exhibition ‘On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970s-1990s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection’ at the Armenian Museum, the Quinn family is happy to broaden the Museum’s collection of contemporary artists with these donations,” explains Quinn. “We continue to be impressed with the way the Museum displays Armenian art which spans the time frame from ancient to modern times. The contemporary exhibits on the third floor have been professionally and artistically compared to the top museums in the country.”

Quinn is the co-host of “Beverly Hills View” and has been the producer and host of the “Joan Quinn Profiles” for more than 35 years. The Los Angeles native was West Coast Editor of Andy Warhol’s “Interview,” Society Editor of the “Los Angeles Herald Examiner,” and the founding West Coast Editor of “Condé Nast Traveler.”

The Quinns have loaned art to museums all over the world, including the Louvre, MoMA, LACMA, Museum of Arts and Design, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Fresno Art Museum, Hammer Museum, and the Huntington Art Museum. Part of the extensive Quinn family collection was loaned to the Armenian Museum for the exhibits “On the Edge” and “Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn,” which showcases contemporary Armenian artists.

“There’s a long tradition of contemporary exhibitions here at the Armenian Museum and the last few shows have taken things to new heights,” says Executive Director Jason Sohigian. “’On the Edge’ was very well received, and we opened a new exhibition, ‘Ara Oshagan: Disrupted, Borders,’ that fits perfectly with our permanent collection, from manuscripts to diaspora and cultural identity, and even Artsakh with the installation of the ‘Shushi Portraits’ series. On top of this, the new exhibition of four Saroyan works adds more excitement to the Adele and Haig Der Manuelian Galleries.”

One of the most prominent American-Armenian literary figures of the 20th century, William Saroyan also wrote music and painted throughout his life. Visual works from his later years, like the watercolors currently on display in “My Name Is Saroyan,” have been compared to the Abstract Expressionism made famous through figures like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and Adolph Gottlieb. The Pulitzer Prize winning author has artworks in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Weisman Art Museum of Minneapolis, among others.

Earlier this month, the Armenian Museum’s Sound Archive released a rare and previously unknown recording of William Saroyan singing at the home of the writer Hamasdegh in 1939. Click here to listen to this seven minute recording, digitized and restored from a lacquer disc which captures a spirited moment between some of the most prominent Armenian-American literary figures of the time.

Succinct and provocative, Aram Saroyan’s brand of minimalism is reflected in a range of media, including his two Uchida marker drawings displayed in “My Name Is Saroyan.” The son of William Saroyan, Aram is an artist, poet, novelist, memoirist, and playwright, having made his debut with six poems and a book review in the 1964 issue of “Poetry.” He became famous for his one-word or “minimal” poems, a form he developed in the 1960s that is often linked to Concrete poetry. Saroyan’s honors include the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He resides in Los Angeles.

Ruben Amirian’s “Homage to Mesrop Mashtots,” (click here to read about this donation by Joan Agajanian Quinn) currently exhibited alongside William and Aram Saroyan at the Armenian Museum, contains 38 canvases representing the letters of the Armenian alphabet. Each canvas is 12 by 16 inches. Assembled altogether, the series extends to an impressive 14 feet wide by four feet high.

Rare Armenian Manuscripts Restored through Bank of America Art Conservation Project Grant

(Left to right): Kerry Miles, Art and Heritage Project Manager at Bank of America; Maryann Ekberg, Managing Director, Bank of America Private Bank; Jason Sohigian, Executive Director, The Armenian Museum of America; and Michele M. Kolligian, President, The Armenian Museum of America.

As part of its Art Conservation Project, Bank of America provided a grant to the Armenian Museum of America of Watertown, Mass., to restore 21 illuminated manuscripts from its collection, one of which dates back to the 13th century, the museum announced today. Bank of America selected the Armenian Museum of America as one of the 23 cultural institutions that have been named recipients of the 2023 Bank of America Art Conservation Project, a program that provides grants to nonprofit cultural institutions to conserve important works of art.

This year's recipients represent a diverse range of artistic styles, media, and cultural traditions across China, Colombia, France, Lebanon, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.

The Armenian Museum of America has the largest collection of Armenian artifacts in the United States. Among them is an extremely rare collection of 21 handwritten and hand-illuminated manuscripts, of which approximately 10 are on display in the museum's galleries at any given time. One example is a small hymnal, or sharaknots in Armenian, which contains hymns to be chanted and performed on feast days. Attributed to the prolific artist Karapet of Berkri, the illumination depicts the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

Since 2010, Bank of America's Art Conservation Project has supported the preservation of paintings, sculptures, and archeological and architectural pieces of critical importance to cultural heritage and the history of art. More than 237 projects across 40 countries managed by nonprofit cultural institutions received funding to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of deterioration.

"We are incredibly grateful to Bank of America for providing us with this leadership grant so our manuscripts will be preserved so that they can be viewed by the public and studied in perpetuity without risk of further damage. This partnership will allow visitors to view the art and culture of the past, and to see it in the context of the present in our galleries," said Jason Sohigian, executive director of the Armenian Museum.

"By the medieval period, Armenians had a rich literary society. Since then, many manuscripts and illuminations have been looted or destroyed, a process that intensified during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Preservation has taken on a renewed importance, as Armenia's cultural heritage remains at risk," he added.

"The Armenian Museum of America is an indispensable resource for the preservation of the rich heritage of the Armenian people. The conservation of these artifacts enriches the community and allows people of all backgrounds to appreciate how the inspirational story of the Armenian people fits into the history of America," said Miceal Chamberlain, President, Bank of America Massachusetts.

The conservation of these rare books will be completed by experts from the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan, which is the largest and most significant Armenian library and archive in the world. The manuscripts require restoration and preservation due to worn edges, light damage, and dust.

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introduction video

The Art Conservation Project is one demonstration of BofA's commitment to promoting cultural sustainability and making the arts more accessible and inclusive in communities.

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BOA Art Conservation Project Grant (Episode I)

This video highlights Bank of America's Art Conservation Project, which recently provided a grant to the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, MA to restore 21 illuminated manuscripts from our collection. We are doing this work in collaboration with experts from the Մատենադարան - Matenadaran.

The work began on site last month with Gayane Eliazyan, head of the Matenadaran's Restoration Department, senior restorer Susanna Barseghyan, and researcher/chief depositor David Ghazaryan.

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BOA Art Conservation Project Grant (Episode II)

Our latest video offers another exclusive inside look at the Armenian Museum of America’s restoration lab in Watertown, Massachusetts, where leading experts carefully restore illuminated manuscripts by applying techniques that clean them and restore them to their original state.

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BOA Art Conservation Project Grant (Episode III)

This third progress video on the project demonstrates the ongoing work in our book restoration lab on-site at the Museum in Watertown (Boston) where leading experts from Armenia carefully clean and repair these priceless books.

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Watertown cable network news coverage

Video coverage by Dan Hogan from Watertown Cable Network. Watch as a small hymnal, or sharaknots, which contains hymns is delicately restored.

Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project has supported the preservation of paintings, sculptures, and archeological and architectural pieces of critical importance to cultural heritage and the history of art. More than 237 projects across 40 countries managed by nonprofit cultural institutions received funding to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of deterioration.

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Ties that Bind: Armenian Master Revives Diaspora Collection // Hairenik Media

Our collection of illuminated manuscripts and prayer scrolls received a monumental restoration, with support from Bank of America's Art Conservation Project. Susanna Barseghyan, a master restorer from the Matenadaran, spent the summer in residence at the Armenian Museum, painstakingly cleaning and repairing the ancient parchment and leather bindings. Hairenik TV went "behind the scenes" for a preview of this priceless collection in the heart of Watertown.

photo galleries

book restoration I

Hmayils (or prayer scrolls) restoration

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Photography and Installation Explore Issues of Dislocation and Cultural Identity

displaced #36, On Arax St., Nor Marash, 2018

The Armenian Museum of America (AMofA) recently announced the opening of its next contemporary art exhibition, “Ara Oshagan: Disrupted, Borders.” The show follows the AMofA’s blockbuster exhibit, “On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970s-1990s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection,” which received rave reviews and was viewed by thousands of visitors.

“Disrupted, Borders” at AMofA is an expanded version of what was previously exhibited at Stockton University Art Gallery in New Jersey, and the show is being curated by Ryann Casey. “This exhibition connects many of the diasporic and homeland entanglements that have occupied me over the past decade or more, from Los Angeles to Beirut to Artsakh,” states Oshagan. “The works articulate a certain ‘diasporic liberation,’ as so well stated by Hyperallergic editor Hrag Vartanian in his introductory essay about the exhibit.”

The exhibition combines photography, collage, installation, and film, the last of which runs in the AMofA’s Rose and Gregory A. Kolligian Media Room. “The installation at Stockton was quite impressive in person and we knew this was something we wanted to bring to our Adele and Haig Der Manuelian Galleries,” says Executive Director Jason Sohigian. “Ara’s photography is from the diaspora in Los Angeles and Beirut, as well as Armenia and Artsakh so it connects many historical elements with contemporary issues facing Armenians today.”

More than 55 works are on display including a massive mural from Oshagan’s Beirut Memory Project, as well as six large medieval manuscripts printed on fabric and overlain with photographs of people from Shushi, Artsakh. Eighteen Armenian Hmayil prayer scrolls are also reproduced for an installation in the middle of the gallery space. The scrolls are created from the digitized collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, and they are modified with “interventions” from Oshagan that reflect on travel, family, culture, and politics.

“Visitors will notice that some of the gallery walls are painted red. This color choice was intentional, and it is actually the color of the dye made by the Cochineal insect that is indigenous to the Ararat plain and Arax River Valley,” explains Sohigian. “Vordan Karmir is a familiar color in Armenian rugs, and Oshagan selected it with the curator to accent the exhibit. It adds another layer of meaning to the issues that Ara brings to this show around Armenian identity and culture.”

The mural and manuscript portraits on fabric, which are part of Oshagan’s Shushi series, are some of the largest works that have ever been exhibited in the AMofA galleries. “Ara’s innovative style allowed us to bring these larger-than-life images into the space so this installation offers many surprises from color to scale to medium, and a mix of time and place that will resonate with visitors,” adds Sohigian.

“Oshagan manages to seamlessly weave together different geographies, historical sources, and a range of mediums to consider the impact of dislocation on our personal and collective history,” explains the Curator Ryann Casey. “Bringing the past to the present, Oshagan asks us to reflect on our connections to place and community while highlighting the importance of memory on our shared future.”

Ara Oshagan is a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, and cultural worker whose practice explores collective and personal histories of dispossession, legacies of violence, and identity. He works in photography, film, collage, installation, book art, public art, and monument-making. Oshagan has published three books of photographs, is currently an artist-in-residence at 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, and a curator at ReflectSpace Gallery in Glendale.

Curator Ryann Casey is a New Jersey based artist and educator. She is an adjunct Professor of Photography, Art History and Critical Theory at Stockton University, and her current photographic and curatorial projects focus on themes of loss, trauma, and memory.

This exhibition has been generously sponsored by Michele M. Kolligian in memory of Haig Der Manuelian for his dedication and foresight in sharing Armenia’s rich history and culture with the world, including an impressive collection of Armenian Manuscripts that he gifted to the Armenian Museum.

“Disrupted, Borders” will be exhibited in the AMofA’s third floor contemporary galleries through October 29, 2023.

Become a Member of the Armenian Museum of America

This summer we hosted a book launch and conversation between New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Kurkjian

Dear Friend,

There is no better time to be a Member of the Armenian Museum of America. Our exhibitions and programming, both online and in-person, have taken the Museum to new heights. We hope this is a source of pride for you as much as it is for us. A few examples:

• A book launch for New York Times best-selling author Chris Bohjalian

• Online programming including concerts and videos with our Curator

• Iconic portraits by Yousuf Karsh, a captivating visual narrative of the Armenian Genocide, and so much more

Harvard magazine recognized its importance in a recent feature-length article: “The Armenian Museum is a powerful experience for visitors. It’s a testament not only to the layered ancient world, but to a peoples’ resilient drive to survive and flourish.”

We have now opened our largest contemporary exhibit in 50 years, On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970s–1990s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection, which features more than 75 works by leading artists such as John Altoon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles Garabedian, Frank Gehry, David Hockney, and Ed Ruscha.

WBUR called the show one of the top five things to do in Boston! We had a wonderful review in the Boston Globe by Pulitzer Prize-winning arts writer and critic Mark Feeney, and it has been covered by WGBH’s Emmy award-winning arts editor Jared Bowen.

The Armenian Museum of America is an influential national organization with members in 37 states! We have one of the largest collections of Armenian artifacts in the Diaspora and we host visitors every week from all over the country and all over the world in our three floors of gallery space.

Our Mission is more important now than ever, especially as Armenians are facing ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure in Artsakh. This is YOUR museum, so please respond with your membership commitment today.

Respectfully yours,

Jason Sohigian
Executive Director

Creativity, Culture and Survival: Museum Reflects Ancient Civilization and Modern Global Diaspora

By Nell Porter Brown

Harvard Magazine
January 2022

In 1207 an elderly scribe in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia completed the Garabed Gospel. Although blinded by the 11-year undertaking, he completed the 250 inked, goat-skin pages at a monastery near what is now southern Turkey. For the next 700 years, the manuscript was passed down through that family lineage of priests, serving as a sacred object, according to the Armenian Museum of America where the volume is now on display. “If one became sick, one would ask the family for ‘the blessing of the book’ to cure their disease,” a plaque explains. 

It is the museum’s oldest book, says Executive Director Jason Sohigian, and survived the looting and destruction of other texts, art, cultural objects, and whole villages. The museum’s collection of more than 25,000 objects elucidates some 3,000 years of Armenian history and culture, from the early days of Christianity to the contemporary global diaspora. 

More contemporary are the museum’s famous portraits by Yousuf Karsh, underground works from the Soviet era and, surprisingly, a handful of oil paintings by the American pathologist, and pioneering right-to-die with dignity proponent, Jack Kevorkian, whose mother escaped the Genocide.

“Many of the objects in our collection and on display are survivors of history,” says Sohigian. “Armenians have inhabited those lands for thousands of years, and our cultural heritage has been under threat especially in recent centuries. Our museum is unique in that it preserves and displays many of these artifacts that tell the story of Armenian resilience, creativity, culture, and survival.”

Click here to read the full article:

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/01/h2-armenian-culture