Tag: Art History

3 Weeks – 3 Great Zohrab Events

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Mark your calendars, friends of the Zohrab Center. The next three weeks will feature a series of three exciting enrichment events.

2016-11-voyagefilm-001THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 • 7PM

ZIC Goes to the Movies. Le Voyage en Arménie (Journey to Armenia) directed by Robert Guediguian. French with English subtitles. Writer, translator, journalist and filmmaker Christopher Atamian will introduce this award-winning film about a man who flees to his native Armenia after being diagnosed with a serious illness. His daughter sets out after him as he seeks to recover his cherished homeland in a country that has changed dramatically since he left it.

Starring Ariane Ascaride, Gérard Meylan, Serge Avédikian, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and Jalil Lespert. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FLYER.

2016-11-jerusalemeverypeople-001WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 • 7PM

Meet the co-curators of the current exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven. Over 200 works of art from Jerusalem illustrate how the Holy City played a key role in shaping the art of the period from 1000-1400. The Armenians’ presence and creative activity in Jerusalem since ancient times are on full display from the very first work in the exhibit, which features several priceless Armenian treasures never before seen outside the walls of the Armenian Quarter.

Drs. Melanie Holcomb and Barbara Drake Boehm, co-curators of the exhibition, will survey the works on display and discuss the importance of this period in the history of Jerusalem and its diverse communities. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FLYER.

2016-11-poetryevening-001THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 • 7PM

An Evening of Poetry. American-Armenian poets Dana Walrath, Shahé Mankerian and Lola Koundakjian will read from their works in English and Armenian.

DANA WALRATH was a 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Armenia, where she completed her first book, Like Water on Stone, a verse novel about the Armenian Genocide, loosely based on the story her grandmother. LOLA KOUNDAKJIAN reads regularly at the Zohrab Center. She has read her works internationally and published them in several translations. She is the founder of the Armenian Poetry Project. SHAHÉ MANKERIAN is co-director of the Los Angeles Writing Project and an award-winning educator. He was the first place winner of the 2012 “Black and White” anthology series from Outsider Press. His poems have been published in numerous literary magazines.

Copies of the poets’ recent books will be available for sale. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FLYER.

All events take place at the Diocese of the Armenian Church, 630 2nd Avenue, New York and begin at 7PM. All are welcome. Admission to the Evening of Poetry is $5. Students with ID are free. All other events are free and open to all. A reception and conversation follows each event.

For further information contact the Zohrab Center at zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710.

 

Learn! Grow! Inspire! 2015 Spring Lecture Series

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ZZohrab.001The Zohrab Center presents a rich and varied program of lectures, book presentations, and other stimulating opportunities for enrichment and edification this Winter and Spring. Armenians and anyone interested in Armenian civilization, arts, letters, and faith will find many options to learn, to grow and to inspire others.

A new study on Armenian music, a guide to the Armenian Church’s Holy Week ceremonies, a photographic album of the old Armenian community of Bourj-Hammoud, a Genocide-era novel, and a new travelogue of historic western Armenia will all be showcased by their authors. In addition, noted scholars will hold forth on various facets of Armenian Studies, including Vartan Matossian, Helen Evans and Roberta Ervine. A movie night and other events are also planned.

The Zohrab Center is collaborating with several sister organizations and parishes to co-sponsor some events.

All events are open to the public and most are free of charge. Unless otherwise noted, all presentations take place at the Zohrab Center (Armenian Diocese, New York). Check back frequently for updates and additions. For further information contact ZIC at info@zohrabcenter.org or (212) 686-0710.

ZIC Schedule of Events Spring 2015

Thursday, February 5 (7PM)
“Code Name Haiko: Discovering the Last Unknown Participant in Talaat Pasha’s Liquidation” Dr. Vartan Matiossian, Armenian National Education Committee

Thursday, February 12
Commemoration of St. Vartan and His Companions. Divine Liturgy and Dinner followed by Lecture. Co-sponsored with St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral
“An Anthropologist Considers St. Vartan: Faith, Nation and Memory” Lecture by Christopher Sheklian, University of Chicago

Thursday, February 19 (7PM)
St. Leon Armenian Church, Fair Lawn, NJ
The Life and Work of 19th-Century Armenian Composer Kristapor Gara-Murza. Book Presentation by Krikor Pidejian with Şahan Arzruni.

Thursday, March 5 (7PM)
Co-sponsored with Eastern Diocese Department of Armenian Studies
Portraits of Survival: The Armenians of Bourj Hammoud. Book Presentation by Ariane Ateshian Delacampagne.

Thursday, March 12 (7PM)
A.G.B.U. Center, New York
Historic Armenia after 100 Years. Book Presentation by Matthew Karamian

Thursday, March 19 (7PM)
“A Guided Tour of Holy Week in the Armenian Church” Lecture and Book Presentation by Fr. Daniel Findikyan, Zohrab Information Center/St. Nersess Armenian Seminary

Wednesday, April 8 (7PM)
“Picking Up the Pieces: Three Bishops and Their Vision for the Armenian Church circa 1920” Lecture by Dr. Roberta Ervine, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary

Thursday, April 16 (7PM)
Co-sponsored with the Eastern Diocese Department of Armenian Studies
The Martyred Armenian Writers 1915-1922. Book presentation by Herand Markarian

Thursday, April 30 (7PM)
“Armenian Art: Voice of a People” Dr. Helen Evans, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tuesday, June 2 (7PM)
The Survivor. Book Presentation: Rosemary Hartounian Cohen.

Precious Paper Trail Leads from ZIC to Constantinople to Holland and Beyond…

On By zohrabcenterIn General Interest, Treasures from the ZIC, Zohrab Center Updates, Zohrab Center VisitorsLeave a comment
Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian examines woodcut prints in an 18th century Armenian hymnal from the Zohrab Center's collection of rare books.
Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian examines woodcut prints in an 18th century Armenian hymnal (Sharagnots) from the Zohrab Center’s collection of rare books.

The Zohrab Center has seen a good deal of noted Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian in recent weeks. In preparation for an academic conference paper, the scholar has been paging through some of the Zohrab Center’s most precious rare books.

She tenderly turns the pages searching for woodcut illustrations printed in Armenian religious books, most of them printed in Constantinople. “There’s another one!” she calls out, pointing to an intricate, full-page illustration featuring biblical images and saints with remarkably detailed facial expressions.

The woodcuts that were produced by Armenian artists in Constantinople are exceptional because many of the compositions for these illustrations were actually closely modeled after western European prints, especially Dutch. The ever-cosmopolitan Armenian artisans became familiar with the designs through the many books printed in Latin, various European languages, and Armenian, which contained them as illustrations. Many such printed books found their way to Armenian communities in Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran in the 17th to 18th centuries.

SylvieMerian2Dr. Merian has discovered dozens of Dutch-inspired Armenian woodcut illustrations in the ZIC’s rare book collection. Often she can even identify the Dutch artist whose work lies in the background of the Armenian print.

But the illustrations inspired more than just woodcut artists. Armenian silversmiths from Kayseri adapted the European designs as imagery for silver plaques used on religious books. Similar images in Armenian manuscript illuminations—which continued to be produced up to the early 19th century in the Near East—and even wall paintings in churches of New Julfa (an Armenian suburb of Isfahan, Iran) are abiding proof of the Armenians’ fascination with the European styles and their openness to adopt and adapt them. In this way, new Christian iconography and decorative motifs were disseminated in various media throughout the region—

—as the Zohrab Center’s remarkable early book collection demonstrates.

Sylvie Merian is Reader Services Librarian at at The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. She received her PhD in Armenian Studies from Columbia University’s Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures, writing her dissertation on Armenian bookbinding. She has published and lectured internationally on Armenian codicology, bookbinding, and manuscript illumination, as well as on the history of the book.

Dr. Merian will present an illustrated lecture on her woodcut research at the Zohrab Information Center on Wednesday, April 9 at 7:00PM.

New Travel Guide to Turkey Spotlights Ancient Armenian Sites

On By zohrabcenterIn Book of the Week, General Interest, Resources, Zohrab Center Interns, Zohrab Center Updates, Zohrab Center VisitorsLeave a comment

by ANDREW KAYAIAN

InnocentsReturn
Jack Tucker, Innocents Return Abroad: Exploring Ancient Sites in Eastern Turkey (Volume 2). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. ISBN 978-1482392173. 274 pp.

The Zohrab Information Center is delighted to present a fascinating new addition to its vast and growing collection: Innocents Return Abroad, Volume II: Exploring Ancient Sites in Eastern Turkey by Jack Tucker. A  succinct work of scholarship, Innocents Return Abroad is a traveler’s guidebook to the many ancient ruins and sites in Eastern Turkey. In a welcome innovation, the author provides exact GPS coordinates for each of the sites described. This geographic information allows pilgrims, tourists and scholars to find these largely forgotten and unmarked sites. That, in turn, will foster study and conservation of these precious monuments, the author anticipates. Continue reading “New Travel Guide to Turkey Spotlights Ancient Armenian Sites” →