Magazine Winter 2008 Person moving

24 November 2008, 15:46
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Person moving

Sculptor and graphic artist Arto Chakmakhchyan moved to Canada thirty years ago. He is now better known outside Armenia, but he has always stayed in touch with his homeland. In 2004 Arto was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal for his unique contribution to national art. His sculpture “Moving Person” will soon be installed on Northern Prospect.

Armenians know ver y little about you. Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Egypt and my entire family repatriated to Armenia in 1948. I liked s culpting as a child and pursued sculpture as a student. After graduating from Yerevan’s Terlemezyan Art School and College of Art and Theatre, all doors – oddly enough – began to close in front of me. My style had none of the pompous zeal and poignancy that had become an essential ingredient for art-making in the USSR.
A person comes to this world only once with a specific mission, and he has to carry it out according to his own philosophy of life. Not once did I betray this conviction, although it was never easy. For many years my art was not displayed; it sat in darkness, wating for its chance to shine. As a result, I accumulated an enormous body of work and did not know what to do with it. As an artist, you are addicted to the creative process and cannot just stop. An artist can choose to bring his ideas to life, otherwise, he risks madness by ignoring his creative impulses. The Soviet art establishment tried to change me so persistently, that I did stop working for a while, but without leaving the world of art. I traveled throughout Armenia for ten years and accumulated a great wealth of knowledge about our rich culture.

You still left though…
Leaving, I was thinking only about one thing: how can I remain useful to my nation? After arriving in the West I ran into another problem – the commercialization of art. I again resisted the temptation of following the received wisdom and did not make commercial compromises, preserving creative purit y in my work. To resist commercial pressures, I began teaching at the Center for Modern Art in Montreal, where I’ve been teaching for the last 30 years. During my time as a teacher and as an artist, I have learned that Armenians are very talented people.

What are the ar t ist ic convict ions that you so vehemently defended?
The most fundamental of my beliefs is that an artist must have unsullied hands and a clear conscious in order to make art. There is no soap in the world of creative practice, once tainted, you can never scrub yourself clean again.

What is the main theme in your work?
The human being himself. Art and culture are first and foremost human experiences, national identity is always secondary to this. Examining and showing the spiritual in humankind is the most important thing in art. That is why I believe that from the Renaissance to this day the human is the only topic that has not been transformed in any way. I am able to continue working only because I believe in humanity.

The problem of national art is a constant subject of discussions…
When something is national, it is not simply a collection of formal attributes, but a profound concept, preserved in the subconscience of a nation. National art cannot be limited by tradition, because its main objective is to reflect the soul of the people in all its richness and beauty.

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