by David Zenian
Lazar Samsonovich Agryan still paints at the age of 87. Suren Babayan is an award-winning painter and Robert Avakian's sculptures immortalize decades of Uzbek achievements.
Their works are on permanent display in museums, government buildings, and main squares in several cities across Uzbekistan.
"I have devoted my life to art, and I want my works to be sent to Armenia, especially those between 1934 and 1945 when I lived and painted in Armenia," he said over breakfast which consisted of home-made bread, jam and a small bottle of vodka.
A cheerful man, Agryan recalls with emotion the years he worked and went on tour with famous Armenian painter Martiros Saryan, who discovered him as a young artist.
"What I learned from Saryan was not how to mix watercolors, but rather how to be strong. have faith in your art, and never forget that you are an Armenian," Agryan said.
"Saryan also taught me the meaning of artistic integrity and was very angry once because I had painted some propaganda scenes involving an Armenian communist army general on the warfront. I have also done a number of portraits of top Armenian communist leaders of the 1940's, but they were all zibil, which in Armenian means trash," he said.
Agryan returned to Samarkand in late 1945 and soon his work started taking a flavor with an emphasis on Uzbek folklore, historical sites and scenes of the rural countryside.
Over the years, Agryan also painted dozens of portraits, including those of every member of his immediate family.
At 87, Agryan is still active and refuses to drop his brush and palette.
"I have dozens of works here in my studio which I want to see collected and taken to Armenia where they belong. I have devoted my life to art, and Armenia is the only safe place." he said.
Babayan, 68, was born in Samarkand and spent his early childhood and adolescence in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh before returning to his native Uzbekistan in 1962.
"My dream was to live and paint in Karabakh, but I was chased out. Azerbaijani discrimination against Armenians did not start in 1988, but almost as soon as Stalin gave the territory to Azerbaijan in the early 1920's," Babayan said during a recent visit to his studio in central Tashkent. "I have seen no discrimination in Uzbekistan," he said.
As a young artist, Babayan in the late 1950's tried to create an Armenian painters' union in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabakh, which was then part of Azerbaijan.
His efforts were thwarted by the Azerbaijani authorities, who also blocked his repeated attempts to establish himself as an artist in the mountainous enclave.
"My paintings were kept out of exhibitions and restrictions were placed on my activities. Obviously I was being targeted because I was an Armenian."
Babayan, already an established painter, was forced to return to his native Uzbekistan in 1962, settling first in the town of Nukus, not far from the shores of the Aral Sea which became a major inspiration for his artistic expression.
"Here in Uzbekistan, I was treated not only with great respect as an artist, but was also given the means to concentrate on my art. The authorities were very generous," he said.
Moving to Tashkent, Babayan was awarded the coveted rank of national artist and his works were sent out on tours around the world as part of Uzbek art exhibitions.
Recently, a television documentary on his work was aired on Uzbek national television and dozens of his paintings remain on permanent display at a number of government offices and institutions.
"I still work in a studio provided by the government, but unfortunately there is no market for my paintings because people these days have no money to spare," Babayan said.
Another Armenian artist, Robert Avakian was already an established sculptor when he moved to Tashkent from Russia in 1964.
"Artists then were often commissioned by the authorities to create works praising the communist movement and ideology. It seems I was chosen to work on national monuments," he said during a recent interview in Tashkent.
In the years that preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union, Avakian designed and built more than 26 massive monuments honoring various Uzbek heroes and Soviet victories during the Second World War. Nearly all of them still stand in prominent public squares and parks across Uzbekistan.
Today, smaller pieces by Avakian can be seen at the national museums of Tashkent and Samarkand, along with other museums and private collections in Europe and Israel.
But artists need to survive, and help has come along with the opening last year of the Samarkand Picture Gallery-a unique center which is owned and managed by Valerie Shahnazarov, a 40-year-old Armenian with a love for art and a knack for business.
Located in what was once a Russian church which was shut down after the communist takeover in the early 1920's, the Picture Gallery is the focal point of the Samarkand art scene. On display in its rooms are works by Uzbek, Russian and Armenian artists. "We also organize concerts, exhibitions and lectures every month along with a permanent exhibition of paintings, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics, carpets and handicrafts," Shahnazarov said.
"The Gallery not only gives the artists an opportunity to show their work, but also to sell them. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, artists were on the government payroll. That's gone now and they have to be appreciated by the general public which in turn will buy their art." "Welcome to the market economy-even in art," he adds.
