National Gallery of Armenia

 Often associated with ideological forms of realism, Soviet-Armenian art was a complex cultural phenomenon, that was had become extremely diverse during the last decades of the Soviet Union. One of the clearest signs of this change was the emergence of the vibrant underground contemporary art scene by the mid-1980s and the turn to abstract art. The results of these developments were crystallised in the 1987–1994 exhibitions organised by the Black Square, Third Floor, and Bunker groups.

In the late 80s and early 90s, during the USSR's gradual collapse and Armenia's turbulent transition to independence, six artist friends, Kiki (Grigor Mikaelyan), Sev (Henrik Khachatryan), Armén Rotch (Hadjian), Martin Petrosyan, Offenbach (Grigor Gyulezyan), and Achot Achot, who were members of the 3^rd Floor group, gathered at Offenbach's studio (nicknamed “Bunker”) on the outskirts of Yerevan. The primary interest of this loose consortium of artists was in non-figurative and "idealistic" forms of art that rejected political orientation and saw art-making as an autonomous realm of aesthetic and intellectual investigation.

These were among the first Armenian artists to foreground the ethics and aesthetics of abstraction as the dominant mode of their work. Drawing on modernist and post-modernist tendencies in Western abstract art, each of them sought to develop distinct styles that spanned the full spectrum of abstraction, from Kiki's gestural painting to Achot Achot's conceptual deconstructions of language and images. What unites these divergent approaches is a common belief in the power of abstract art as a productive aesthetic mechanism for addressing the urgent philosophical questions of the day

This was a belief also shared by the businessman and art collector Sergei Djavadian. After getting acquainted with post-war international abstraction in the late 1980s, Djavadian developed an affinity with the "non-political" abstractionists in Offenbach's circle and their ideal of ideological freedom and decided to financially support the group and promote their work. In response, the artists supplied Djavadian with many of their best works, eventually leading to the formation of one of the largest and most important collections of late-twentieth-century Armenian contemporary art.

However, after Djavadian and these artists immigrated from Armenia in the 1990s, this pioneering legacy has been largely forgotten. That is certain to change with a major gift of 42 key artworks from the Elmira and Sergei Djavadian collection to the National Gallery of Armenia. Brought together for the first time in the present exhibition, this selection marks a vital moment in the history of contemporary Armenian art, demonstrating the astonishing wave of artistic innovation and intellectual exploration that would fundamentally transform Armenian visual culture at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Curators: Vigen Galstyan, Choghakate Kazarian