Amberd 1957

Martiros Sarian made this landscape with oils, maybe in one shot, maybe over days. Look at the strokes that load up with information about color, direction and texture to form a hill topped with an old stone building. I like how the brushstrokes build up the form and the feeling of the land and sky, it feels like the whole picture came into being all at once. It's not quite abstraction, but I can see it heading there. I can almost feel the weight of the brush in his hand, the angle of his arm as he’s making those marks. The paint is applied with confidence, thin in some parts and thicker in others, creating a surface that feels both rugged and immediate. There’s a kinship here with painters like Van Gogh. I imagine Sarian looking at the world, not just seeing it, but feeling it, and then translating that feeling directly onto the canvas. He’s not trying to copy nature, but is entering into a dialogue with it. That’s what painting is—one big conversation across time.