Armen Ghazaryan — Paintings

Series I · 1996–2026 · 14 works

Gold and Wood

Large works on wood and canvas, built up in oil with gold leaf, metal and relief, many of them set in carved or old wooden frames. They are dense with small scenes and symbols and made to be looked at slowly: each opens with numbered points and close-up photographs of its details.

Only the Camel Passed Through the Eye of the Needle: on a gold panel, a procession in suits and robes walks along a wire toward the eye of a bronze needle, their shadows shaped like camels; below, a man drags a white crucified figure up with ropes past a dragon at the foot of the needle; a camel watches from the right edge — Only the Camel Passed Through the Eye of the Needle2026 · 6 details · essay

One Path: a wooden block wrapped in white cloth stands out from a night sky; below it a gilded cross of branches, and at the bottom a woman in red beside a glowing cradle — One Path2026 · 7 details

A Gaze from the Past: a grey head with closed eyes on dark cracked wood; through a broken patch in the forehead a vivid open eye looks out; the panel is framed in old boards with iron corner plates — A Gaze from the Past2024 · 2 details

Angel: a pale, fair-haired angel in a dark robe on gold leaf, inside a carved and gilded hollow of wood; one hand holds a stem of red roses with eyes, the other rests on a large dark eye with a blue iris at the bottom — Angel2024 · 11 details

Catharsis: a crowd of grey faces in every state, laughing, screaming, weeping and hiding, with a many-eyed bird on the left and a single warm, lifelike hand reaching down into the crowd — Catharsis2022 · 15 details

4 Baptisms, 4 Books: inside a golden ring formed by a serpent biting its tail, water is poured over a bearded head, earth over another head, a crystal is held up on a hand, and fire falls into a dark red sphere; stone tablets, a book cover, a sealed scroll and a wheel emblem fill the corners — 4 Baptisms, 4 Books2022 · 5 details

Saint Francis: two wounded hands held open beneath a T-shaped cross, a hummingbird, a knotted rope and a wolf, on an ornamented gold panel — Saint Francis2022 · 5 details

Adam Lilit: a nude man and a red-haired woman on a gold arched panel, a red double helix rising between them from a swirling white sphere framed by red wings; an ape with a banana at his side, a black serpent around her and a barn owl at her feet — Adam Lilit2020 · 7 details

Golgotha: Christ in the crown of thorns at the centre of a long panel, surrounded by a crowd of faces from different times, including a woman in a face mask, a plague doctor mask, a riot helmet, an old man in a prayer shawl and a woman taking a selfie; hands press the crown and tear his red robe — Golgotha2020 · 13 details

The Prophet: a shaved head on a cracked gold ground with stamped ornament; one hand covers the eyes, one covers the mouth, an arm reaches down to the ear and a fourth hand rises open from below, while one eye looks out between the fingers — The Prophet2020 · 6 details

Sacrifice: an arched gold panel with a metal border; the crucified Christ hangs on a cross formed by a hand reaching down from above and two open wounded hands spread to the sides; a red flower and a pale moon in the upper corners; a skull in a quatrefoil at the foot — Sacrifice2020 · 4 details

The Magi and the Myrrh-Bearing Women: on dark wood, hands reaching down from above offer a golden shell, a smoking turquoise vessel and a gold casket to old hands rising from below — The Magi and the Myrrh-Bearing Women2019 · 4 details

The Last Supper: a long wooden table seen from above with only hands around it, breaking bread, dipping it in red wine, reaching for fish on a woven mat, olives, grapes and cups, in a wooden frame — The Last Supper2017 · 13 details

Series II · 2026 · 12 works

Sunrises

After the gold and the gravity of the panels, Sunrises is the painter at ease. The palette is the first hour of the day: violet shadows, mist lying in the valleys, a sky going from rose to apricot to gold, and the snow of Ararat catching the light before anything else does. The subjects are simple — a house on a hill with one lit window, someone on a bench with a cup and a dog, a cat on the sill, washing on the line, a woman stepping out onto her balcony — laid on in thick, quick strokes, heaviest where the light falls. There is no story to decode in them. They are about a life that is quiet and unhurried, and a landscape seen every morning as if for the first time.

Sunrise I: a lit porch on a hilltop, a figure on the bench, snow peaks glowing gold across the mist — Sunrise I2026

Sunrise II: the two peaks of Ararat glowing above a violet plain, a small red-roofed house on the ridge — Sunrise II2026

Sunrise III: a winding road through mist past lit houses, Ararat far off under an orange sky — Sunrise III2026

Sunrise IV: a lit house on top of a sheer cliff above the clouds, Ararat in the distance — Sunrise IV2026

Sunrise V: bare crossed legs on a pink sheet beside a calico cat lying on its back, a coffee cup on a wooden board — Sunrise V2026

Sunrise VI: a figure sitting outside with a dog facing the valley, a lit window behind, Ararat on the horizon — Sunrise VI2026

Sunrise VII: jagged orange-lit peaks above clouds, a small house with lit windows and chimney smoke — Sunrise VII2026

Sunrise VIII: a black cat on a windowsill watching a pink and violet garden at dawn — Sunrise VIII2026

Sunrise IX: a wooden fence with wild flowers, a red-roofed house below, mountains turning pink — Sunrise IX2026

Sunrise X: Ararat glowing violet against an orange sky, a lit house on the right, animals on a hill — Sunrise X2026

Sunrise XI: a woman on a blue balcony arranging her hair, a small white dog beside her, pink bougainvillea on a yellow wall — Sunrise XI2026

Sunrise XII: a small child in a blue shirt facing a white sheet on the washing line with a woman’s shadow on it — Sunrise XII2026

Series III · 1986–2024 · 17 works

Faith, Myth and Memory

Gospel scenes, saints and old stories, most of them painted on canvas in the 1990s and 2000s. Many are built over pages of Armenian manuscripts, bound with cords and closed with wax seals, so that the image seems to grow out of the written word. Two paintings carry the memory of 1915: Genocide, his diploma work of 1986, and The Road, painted for the centenary in 2015 and now in the National Gallery of Armenia.

Balance: a tall stack of flat stones on a strip of deep blue water against gold foil; on the long top stone a small cairn and a figure with a red ribbon at one end, a seated figure fishing at the other with a red ball on the line; two seagulls to the left — Balance2024 · 2 details

Anahit: a golden classical bust of the goddess weeping red and gold tears into a jewelled bowl, hands below holding flat bread, grapes and a pomegranate, on a cracked gold ground with a blue edge — Anahit2020 · 5 details

The Road: a long panel of pale rippled sand seen from above, a deep red vortex with crumpled white paper at the left, a red trail across cracked earth, an old book with beads and a broken wooden wheel lying in the sand — The Road2015 · 5 details

Moses: a gilded reliquary arm with raised hand rising through the centre between two masses of blue waves, a horseman miniature on the left and a crowd on the right, a haloed figure in red above, on a ground of manuscript fragments — Moses2007

The Baptism: Christ standing in blue water, John the Baptist reaching towards him, a ray of light falling from above, a great fish filled with haloed figures behind them, on gold over Armenian manuscript pages under a net of cords, with three wax seals — The Baptism2004

The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter: in a dark room a girl lies in a white shroud; Christ, glowing with a halo, reaches a hand towards her; a woman in a yellow robe turns to him with open hands, a hooded man stands in shadow, and pale figures appear behind Christ — The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter1998 · 3 details

Love One Another, as I Have Loved You: Christ facing forward with large dark eyes and raised right hand, against fragments of old Armenian manuscript pages, a red robe built up in crumpled relief around his shoulders — Love One Another, as I Have Loved You1997 · 3 details

Book of Prayers: an old Armenian manuscript page with red initials on a red and ochre ground, covered by a net of cords, two small relief figures in the lower right, one kneeling and one standing — Book of Prayers1997 · 2 details

365 Grains: an open pomegranate with dark glossy seeds at the centre of a canvas wrapped in cords, faded Armenian book pages around it and a wax seal on knotted cords at the lower right — 365 Grains1997 · 2 details

Gregory the Illuminator: a haloed figure in crumpled gilded relief descending from the upper left towards a small church at the bottom, among old Armenian manuscript pages on a blue and burnt-gold ground — Gregory the Illuminator1997 · 1 details

The Raising of Lazarus: a tall figure wound in grave clothes stands in the centre, a large pale fish lying across it to form a cross, over Armenian manuscript pages touched with blue, all under a stretched net of cords — The Raising of Lazarus1996 · 1 details

The Magi: three tall figures with shaved heads wrapped in long patterned cloaks of rose, red and white, standing side by side against a deep rose ground — The Magi1996 · 7 details

Sacrifice, 1996: a dark woman in a net veil holding out on her hand the head of a white-maned monkey; above her a pale woman wrapped in gold dissolving into an orange ground; a branch of red blossom at the upper right — Sacrifice1996 · 4 details

Salome: a dancer stepping out between deep red curtains, her face hidden behind a hanging green-and-gold headdress, wearing gold ornaments; at the right a ringed hand in a blue embroidered sleeve holds the curtain aside — Salome1992 · 3 details

Genocide: under a rust-coloured sky the bodies of the dead lie across the land to the horizon; at the centre a small barefoot child in a torn shirt stands alone among them, crying — Genocide1986 · 8 details

The Prayer on the Mount of Olives: a great red-winged angel holding a gold chalice, Christ kneeling at the left before a stone of cracked manuscript pages, the bowed heads of sleeping disciples at the lower right — The Prayer on the Mount of Olives4 details

The Baptism of Christ: on a dark worn ground, a standing bearded figure with bowed head pours water over a kneeling figure seen from behind, a white dove descending in a shaft of light between them — The Baptism of Christ1 details

Series IV · 1996–1999 · 4 works

Flamenco

Flamenco as he paints it is less a dance than a duel: a man and a woman facing each other, his body straining, her dress turning into a wave of red, yellow or white. The bodies are modelled carefully in light against a dark ground, while the dresses are laid on thick with the palette knife, so that they still seem to be moving.

Flamenco: a dancer turning in a blur of ochre and white strokes against a deep red ground, a woman in a dark shawl clapping and singing at the lower left — Flamenco1996 · 3 details

Element (Flamenco): a shirtless man with raised arms shouting against a blue ground, a woman in a red dress seen from behind — Element (Flamenco)

Flamenco (Black and White): a man’s pale twisting torso on the left, a woman in a red dress dancing on a black ground behind him — Flamenco (Black and White)

Series V · 5 works

Eros

The body half shown and half hidden: glimpsed through squares of gilding like fragments of an old fresco, held by hands heavy with rings and gold chains, wrapped in coarse gilded cloth over pages of old script. Gold, ornament and the cracked texture of old walls turn desire into something close to ritual.

Emotion: a figure almost lost in a cracked brown surface, with three lit squares showing a turned face, a breast and a hip — Emotion2007

Tango: a woman’s body in white drapery on a red and ochre ground, a cracked square of gilding across her waist with a drawn hand resting on it — Tango2007 · 1 details

Nectar: a woman with a tall gilded headdress set with amber stones drinking from a golden vessel, on a ground of manuscript pages and gold — Nectar

Feeling: a torso in a gilded net with an amber ornament on the chest, hands with rings and chains meeting at the waist, on pages of Arabic script — Feeling1 details

Passion: a torso on a red ground with a gold ornament down the chest, a hand with rings, a gold chain and bangles at the waist — Passion

Series VI · 1985–1994 · 3 works

Portraits

A sleeping girl on a canvas the size of a hand, the artist himself as a young painting student, and a man in a ruff beneath a crown drawn in gold lines.

Hasmik: a young woman with long dark hair resting her head on gilded cloth, eyes closed, arms folded over her knees — Hasmik1994

Self-Portrait, 1985: a young dark-haired man in a sleeveless red-brown shirt, half-turned against a dark wall, light falling across half his face, a brush in one hand — Self-Portrait1985 · 3 details

Untitled1 details

Series VII · 1982–2008 · 27 works

Graphic Works

Drawings in pencil, charcoal and ink, from a student study of a camel in 1982 to sketches made on the road and studies for the paintings. Here the line does all the work: hands that touch or grip, bodies half dissolved in charcoal, empty rooms, a mill in Germany, a knot of ribbons like Armenian stone carving, and Noah’s ark resting on Ararat.

Face: a broken pale stone face in relief against black — Face2012

Figure: a pale relief figure with crossed arms and head thrown back on black — Figure2012

Eyes I: two studies of an eye, one open and one closed, in sepia — Eyes I2008

Eyes II2008

Two Figures: a horned crouching figure carrying another on its back, a curtain at the right, in sepia — Two Figures2002

Bronze Birds: three gilded bird-topped bronze standards in relief on a red ground — Bronze Birds2002

Idol: a pale cracked female figurine like an ancient idol on a dark ground — Idol2002

The Mill at Niederbergheim: a half-timbered mill with a pointed tower and a large water wheel, a café umbrella on the terrace — The Mill at Niederbergheim1999

Camel: a camel’s head and neck in fine pencil hatching — Camel1982

Behind the Bars: a blurred face seen through the gaps between heavy pointed bars — Behind the Bars

Knot: interlaced ribbons forming a dense knot, with an eye hidden in the middle — Knot

Nude in Charcoal I: a seated nude in charcoal, shoulder and breast in light, the rest in dark strokes — Nude in Charcoal I

Nude in Charcoal II: a standing torso from behind in vertical charcoal strokes — Nude in Charcoal II

Dunes: rolling dunes shaped like a body, a wind-bent tree on the ridge and two scorpions — Dunes

Horse at the Trough: a horse’s head beside a wooden trough with taps, a barrel and a bucket — Horse at the Trough

At the Desk: a woman seen from behind at a desk, bookshelves and an unmade bed in the room — At the Desk

The Ark on Ararat: Noah’s ark on the summit of Ararat, the two peaks as pyramids above clouds — The Ark on Ararat

Head with Earrings: a shaved head with rings in the brow and ear, a hand sketched below — Head with Earrings

Two Hands: one hand raised flat and another touching it with one finger — Two Hands

The Bed: a woman lying face down on a bed, photographs scattered on the floor, a door open — The Bed

Hand on the Sheet: a hand gripping the folds of a sheet — Hand on the Sheet

The Empty Room: a woman lying curled on the floor of an empty room with a dresser and a coat stand — The Empty Room

Standing Nude: a slender standing nude stretching upward with one arm raised — Standing Nude

Flight: a large flock of birds in flight against a rose and gold evening sky — Flight

Reclining Nude: a reclining nude in charcoal, hair spilling down, knees raised like hills — Reclining Nude

Two Heads: two quick black crayon portraits of a bearded man — Two Heads

Crucifixion: a crucifixion in silvered and gilded relief like old Armenian stone carving, interlace on the cross — Crucifixion