Art Talk on Topographies of Dissent

Dr. Julia Tulovsky is Head of the Department of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union and Arts of Eurasia at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. A leading specialist in Russian and Soviet nonconformist art, she earned her Ph.D. from Moscow State University. Prior to joining the Zimmerli, she held curatorial and research positions at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and served as Executive Director of the Malevich Society in New York beginning in 2001. Since the start of her tenure at the Zimmerli in 2007, Dr. Tulovsky has curated over 20 exhibitions and published extensively on Russian avant-garde and contemporary art. Her curatorial work bridges historical scholarship with contemporary perspectives, exploring the intersections of political dissent, cultural identity, and artistic innovation across Eurasia.

Armen Yesayants is a Yerevan-based curator, art historian, and cultural manager. He serves as Director of Exhibitions at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts (Գաֆէսճեան արվեստի կենտրոն), where he has curated and co-organized nearly 50 exhibitions since 2012. In 2024, he curated the Armenian National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Armen holds a PhD in Art History from Yerevan State University and an MA in Arts & Cultural Management from King’s College London. He is also the co-founder and co-host of Artասովոր, the first Armenian podcast dedicated to modern and contemporary art. His curatorial practice and research focus on modern and contemporary art—particularly Armenian and post-Soviet visual culture—and explore the intersections of ideology, identity, and memory, with special attention to the role of museums in shaping cross-cultural dialogue.

Lilit Sargsyan is one of Armenia’s leading art critics, based in Yerevan. Her work primarily focuses on the history of Armenian modern and contemporary art within the broader context of the socio-political history of the USSR in the post-Stalin era. Lilit was born in Yerevan in 1974. She has been drawing and doing ceramics since childhood. She graduated with distinction from the State Academy of Fine Arts of Yerevan in 1996. She began her career at the UNESCO Chair of Armenian Art History at Yerevan State University, where she taught art history for ten years. Alongside her academic work, Lilit has been actively researching, promoting, and teaching modern and contemporary Armenian art at various art colleges and schools in Armenia. She has published articles in newspapers, academic and popular journals, and exhibition catalogues. She has also worked in museums — at the National Gallery of Armenia as Head of the Department of Armenian Painting, and at the Museum of Russian Art (Professor Abrahamyan’s collection) as Chief Curator and Researcher. She also periodically collaborates with the Cafesjian Center for the Arts as a guest curator and lecturer. Lilit continues to collaborate with museums as an independent curator, organizing her own curatorial projects. She is also a co-founder of AICA-Armenia, the Armenian section of the International Association of Art Critics. She is currently preparing to defend her PhD dissertation and plans to continue her academic research in modern and contemporary Armenian art while further developing her independent curatorial practice.

Choghakate Kazarian is an art historian and curator specialized in modern and contemporary art. She holds a Master degree in art history from the Ecole du Louvre (Paris), a Master degree in philosophy from La Sorbonne (Paris) and a PhD in art history from The Courtauld Institute of Art (London). She was curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and taught at the Ecole du Louvre. She has curated exhibitions on artists such as Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Karel Appel, and Henry Darger. Her latest exhibitions include Immersion. The Origins: 1949–1969 at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne (Switzerland), “Mood of the Moment: Gaby Aghion and the house of Chloé” at The Jewish Museum (New York), and “New Matter: The Sergei Djavadian Collection of Armenian Abstraction” at the National Gallery of Armenia.

Topographies of Dissent presents a selection of works by Armenian artists from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, revealing the paradoxes of Armenian history in the Soviet era through the art of its time. Divided into five sections—National Landscape: Land, Identity, Dream; Facets of "Formalism"; Abstraction; The 3rd Floor Group: Pop Art, Hyperrealism, and Neo-Dada; and Dystopias of the Evil Empire, the exhibition reflects the unprecedentedly liberal culture which blurred the boundaries of “official” and “unofficial” art. Contrary to its Soviet counterparts, the Armenian art of the Soviet era developed underground organically, building upon the work of the pre-Soviet Armenian artists who synthesized national traditions and independent thinking with the global avant-garde. The Armenian nonconformists were perceived as being aligned with national modernism, until toward the end of the Soviet era, the 3rd Floor movement broke from the restrictions of national and artistic canons. This exhibition is made possible by the leadership support of the Avenir Foundation Endowment Fund, with additional support from the Dodge Charitable Trust – Nancy Ruyle Dodge, Trustee. Generous support for bilingual text was provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. Learn more at https://zimmerli.rutgers.edu/art/exhibition/topographies-dissent-armeni… Artwork featured: Armine Galents, Katoghike Church in Talin, Armenia, 1983. Oil on canvas. Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union.