“The red color is faith in life, green is commencement of life or nature, blue is the color of God or hope, white is a dream, the brightness of light, strength and chilliness of ice.” Ashot Hovhannisyan wrote about colors as if they were living creatures. He had a touching attitude to color.
Ashot Hovhannisyan (1929-1997) is one of the greatest Armenian contemporary artist. According to the painter, the color is an absolute beauty which attracts a human, effects on his soul, has its measure both in the nature and in the canvas. The color in the painting is not end itself, like the voice in the music, color in the painting has a notional function. Hovhannisyan is one of the rare painters who has used black and white colors as an equivalent constituent which with its contrast heightens the intensity of the surrounding sonorous colors.
1957-1964 – he studied at the Leningrad Academy of Arts, in Yu. Neprintseva. Since 1970 – member of the Union of Artists of Armenia. 1977 – participated in the exhibition “Works by 50 artists of Soviet Armenia”, Paris. 1978 – participated in an exhibition of modern Armenian artists, organized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
1982 – participated in the exhibition “Armenian painting and graphics”, Budapest. 1984 – participated in the exhibition “Art of Soviet genocide”, Berlin.
1990 – received the title of Honored Artist of Armenia. 1992 – participated in the exhibition of a private collection, London. 1995 – participated in an exhibition in Bochum, Germany. 1996 – for his film “Disaster” was awarded the I prize at the exhibition-contest dedicated to the World Congress, organized by the UN Development Programme.
1997 - died in Yerevan.
2004 – posthumous personal exhibition, NGA, Yerevan, with the participation of Modern Art Museum (Yerevan), dedicated to the 75th anniversary of his birth. Works are in the Museum of Modern Art (Yerevan), NGA, and numerous private collections in Armenia and abroad.
