Old Yerevan, Kond 1991

Petros Malayan painted "Old Yerevan, Kond" using watercolour to give us this atmospheric glimpse of a place and time. The way he works the watercolour creates a world within the image, a certain feeling that evokes a mood, like a memory fading into the paper. Look at how the greys and browns bleed into each other, forming shapes that suggest buildings and trees. There is a beautiful ambivalence in the picture - a sense of a thing seen indirectly, or remembered through a haze. The details emerge slowly – a window here, a rooftop there – making the act of seeing a process of discovery. It reminds me of some of Giorgio Morandi's landscapes – that same interest in the poetry of place and the simple beauty of muted tones. There is no definitive meaning, but rather, an open invitation to wander through a world that exists somewhere between reality and imagination.