Goris 1935

Curator: Martiros Sarian created this pencil drawing, titled "Goris", in 1935. It seems to me like a landscape study. Editor: It feels like looking at a dream, you know? Hazy edges, half-formed ideas... there’s something almost wistful about the scene. It makes me think of childhood memories viewed from a distance. Curator: I agree that the overall effect has this lightness. Sarian used a variety of pencil strokes—short, sharp scribbles for the vegetation against longer, smoother marks to describe the mountain’s form—giving the composition depth and texture. There is a deliberate attention to the structure. Editor: Those sharp lines do give it a lot of life, don’t they? Look at the figures at the bottom, tiny, nearly swallowed by the vast landscape. What I like is how Sarian has given them their little stories - they ground us as the sheep guide us deeper into the sketch! The light's really clever. Curator: Precisely! The figures at the lower end introduce an allegorical aspect to the composition, creating visual dynamics by connecting the immediate and broader contexts within this representation. These structural contrasts contribute to the scene’s perceived depth, guiding our visual reading towards higher peaks. Editor: The whole thing kind of resonates with my experience, with his ability to pull me into what otherwise is nothing more than, a bit like, scribble and dash on paper, haha. So, what does Goris mean to Sarian - or the location of the place! Curator: The sketch probably means several things, as Sarian was born in the Armenian lands of Nakhichevan. And Goris is just across the border from that. What appears here is Sarian's own cultural and artistic context rendered on paper with realism in style with an Orientalism feel! Editor: Thanks, you just let me know how to describe this memory from Armenia! The art, really, becomes a dialogue between how we remember a place, and how it remains eternal. Curator: An excellent point: let us carry those reflections onward as we progress!