Chinese Guanyin made of lapis lazuli- a product of cultural exchanges and intersections
By Ani Margaryan Have you ever seen an artwork that is all about one single, intensive, capturing colour your eyescan’t get enough of? Yves Klein’s “Blue Venus” (1961) (Pic.1) is one of that kind: the deep-bluecolour has enveloped the entire figure of the goddess of beauty epitomising the concept of attraction itself and immersing the viewer to shrink into its profoundness of dark-cerulean texture. The blue has always been a source of awe, tranquillity, presence of divine for the first knowncivilisations to nowadays audiences, but in comparison with Klein’s “Blue Venus” (painted plaster),the captivating deep-blue colour of centuries-old artworks, jewellery and figurines
Chinese manuscripts donated to Matenadaran
Armina Manukyan has recently donated a collection of Chinese, precisely Cantonese (nowadaysGuangzhou province) miniature paintings of the late 19th century, as well as a valuable manuscriptto the the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts of Armenia, the world's largestrepository of Armenian manuscripts, enriching the Chinese collection of the Armenian museum.
Hovsep Pushman’s Chinese still life paintings
Hovsep Pushman (1877-1966) was a well-known and demanded American artist of Armenian background. The most distinctive feature of his artistic style and unique signature was contemplative and aesthetic still life works, involving Oriental, mainly Chinese porcelain jars, vessels, manuscripts, statues and figurines of Buddha, dancers, horsemen, monks, fusing them with Western and Armenian antiquities.Due to their unusual juxtapositions within the compositional space, they emit with their multilayered content, nourishing the imagination of the audience. His works are regarded as a specific phase of Chinese motifs and Chinese-culture-related mysticism's evolution in American art history.
17th – century engravings of the Armenian merchants
These engravings by the Western artists represent figures of the Armenian merchants in their traditional outfits. They were key figures and intermediaries in the East-West global trade. They were recognized by their peculiar turbans and garbs. According to historians, Armenian merchants were favored by the Chinese people involved in the trade with the West.
Armenians in China (1880s-1950s)
Hundreds of Armenians journeyed eastward to China in the late 19th century in search of opportunity, anchoring themselves in major cities, as well as in Harbin, a town that rose to prominence with the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Initially, Armenian railroad workers and merchants formed the core of the community in Harbin. Their numbers were small—no more than a few dozen. A larger number of Armenians lived in Manzhouli (Manchuli), which had risen to prominence in the early 20th century also thanks to railway projects. A group photograph of the Armenian community in Manzhouli (circa 1919) depicting around 150
