Armenia Art Fair: A Pathway Through Modern and Contemporary Armenian Art

“A Pathway Through Modern and Contemporary Armenian Art”

Dr Iain Robertson, with contribution by Nazareth Karoyan

By the “Armenia Art Fair” Art Foundation with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

This book offers the reader a broad and accessible introduction to the evolution of Armenian modern and contemporary art, highlighting its contribution to international modernism and more recent developments in global contemporary art. It's a first-of-a-kind illustrated guide in English for those interested in 20th and 21st century Armenian art by artists from the republicand its diaspora, which the authors suggest has been largely overlooked until now.

Written by Dr Iain Robertson, a specialist on emerging art markets and an honorary Fellow to Sotheby’s Institute of Art author of numerous books on the art market, with a contribution from Nazareth Karoyan, a founder and first president of the Armenia Institute forContemporary Art, the book gives an overview of Armenia's modern art developments andthe era's key artists.

It argues that Armenian modern art contains particular qualities, which differentiate it from that produced in other nations at the time and from the mainstream modernist tendencies emanating out of Western Europe. The authors examine how artists responded to and soughtto survive the social and political environment stretching through the Soviet period and intothe post-Communist era, helping to shape the Armenian art that we see today.

He is Head of Art Business Studies at Sotheby's Institute of Art and author of numerousbooks on the art market. His most recent books are, Understanding Art Markets: Inside the World of Arts and Business, (2016) and New Art New Markets, (2018). He lives and worksin London.

To find out how you can buy the book, write to [email protected].

Image: Arshile Gorky, The Betrothal (1947). Copyright: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. The Katherine Ordway Collection.