First, why "Khaltura"? "During the Soviet period, in order to raise the aesthetic taste of the population and carry out propaganda work, the state allocated large sums of money to "decorate" the corridors and cabinets in factories and state institutions with paintings... For this purpose, under the Union of Artists operated the art combine. It was a real combine that was creating pictures, posters and portraits of the Politburo. Among the artists, making money in this way was considered a "khaltura (hack)". Some artists were busy only with that. They were called "Khalturshik (hacker)".
Karen Ohanyan's "Khaltura" exhibition can leave a double impression on art lovers. On the one hand, we see paintings from the Soviet period, which, although they are not museum value, are still (regardless of quality) works of art, on the other hand, we see a certain innovation, giving new breath to old paintings. Karen Ohanyan finds those canvases in an abandoned factory and decides to give them life. The artist does not change the pictures much, he mainly adds a few brushstrokes giving the works a certain color tone. In one place he closes the face of a figure reminiscent of Lenin, as if drawing a line on socialist realism, in another place he covers the church with a bright yellow light that seems to come down from the sky.
Four of the canvases were landscapes, one was a portrait of Stepan Shahumyan, and the other was a group portrait. There are many landscape paintings in our art, and not every landscape painting can be called a work of high art. Shahumyan looks like he is wearing a wig, his hairy forehead is separated by a line from his head hair, which is what creates that effect. The artist added a small red section to the white background of that canvas, which will seem very symbolic to the reader familiar with Shahumyan's history. Therefore, this exhibition of the artist should not be approached critically. Time moves forward, so does art. Armenian modern art has rebelled against the socialist realist ideology for a long time, and this exhibition is another example of that rebellion, presented in the "Sargis Muradyan" exhibition hall.
Hrachya Galstyan