CRITICS REVIEW 

 

Contact with Vladimir Atanian's creation causes real aesthetic enjoyment, one feels immense gratitude to the artist for the wonderful world of his soul.

V.N. Lenskaya, Art Critic

Art Advertiser of Koningsburg Museum of History & Art

 

Atanian has created his own world that is wrapped with light and warm feelings, a world that reminds you of the rarely occurring beautiful dreams you'd never like to part with...Besides his talent, more significant for Atanian is his diligence, his boundless diligence. Perhaps for this reason he has shown himself perfectly in almost all fields of the Fine Arts.

Vartan Vartanian, Art Critic

 

All great artists have been generous in giving themselves to the world. In our own time, Vladimir Atanian, a generous man, committed to creating art that serves the good, presents himself to the world in the form of "The Artist as Visiting Light."

Richard Nathan, M.A. (OXON)

Publisher and Editor of "Mad Dogs & Englishmen"

 

No doubt Vladimir Atanian is an artist of moods and emotions, it has a great effect on his creative work, his constant desire to express his feelings in his works makes him search for new art means and space compositional orientations.

Marina Stepanyan, Art Critic

Art Academy of Republic of Armenia

 

Atanian is an artist of active, dynamic character he feels the rhythm of

time acutely, a relentless researcher who discovers new artistic dimensions within the heart of creation itself.

Pogos Haytayan, Art Critic

 

Vladimir Atanian: The Master of Visions of Multi Colored World

 

Peculiar are his creations, peculiar is the painter Vladimir Atanian. With his inexhaustible imagination (that often surprises the viewer from the aspects of color and composition) Atanian spreads in front of us the tri-colored drama of Armenia, beautiful wholesomeness of segmented imaginative impressions. Parallels create unique pictures and perception of the world, sudden eruptions of illumination and color. Atanian's brush is flexible and carries a seemingly chaotic (but in reality systematic) essence of multiple manifestations and visions. Some kind of a different thing always keeps to the rhythm of contemporary life, even though the artist never becomes a mere recorder of it. Three in an epic breathing at only in Atanian's paintings, but also in his sculptural creations. Marcesian psychedelic, multi-colored world of different times or happenings is present in every work. Collage is not simply a matter of technique for Atanian; due to the artist's imagination and his subtle taste of correlation, those works emerge beyond mechanical adding's and alliances, they become a breathing system of ideas, an outlook of their own.

Dr. Artem Haroutunian

Professor of Modern Languages, State University of Armenia

 

Vladimir Atanian: Portrait of the Artist as Visiting Light

 

Numerous critics have observed that in the period immediately following the tragic earthquake of 1988, there was a striking change in Vladimir atanians style. Gone was the lyrical mood of optimism, as his canvases reflected the great changes occurring in peoples consciousness. However, in much of his recent work Maestro Atanian has returned to the optimism and joy that have always been at the core of his art, while at the same time reminding us of the demonic specters that continually lurk in the shadows. His recent work might therefore be expressed as “Reflections of Visiting Light. Of late, one must identify two specific media focuses in Atanian’s ever-changing expression as a painter. First, his oils and acrylics principally form the period 1993-96, and secondly his work in mixed media, especially employing collage, with which the artist has been increasingly fascinated over the past two years. This recent work shows how far Atanian has expanded his creative force through the vocabulary of painting. It is indeed this creative force that prevents him from dwelling upon methods he has already mastered. Many of the works in his recent portfolio reveal the legacy of Maestro Atanian’s earlier artistic expression through sculpture. In them one can also recognize the ceramist, a craftsman who is accustomed to making things with his own hands. There is, indeed, a visceral and very tactile quality to the work that makes the observer want to touch and to feel. Prominent among the studies of these recent works is that of the feminine, in abstract and surreal expression of face and form. Woman and her surroundings are complemented in each case by a vibrant explosion of color. We seen now, perhaps more than ever before, the great soul that is behind the art of Vladimir Atanian. We seen too his reverence for the great artistic tradition in which he stands. Many have commented on how Atanian is a true Armenian artist, drawing on that country’s spiritual and artistic legacy. While the Armenian influence is omnipresent, Atanian increasingly highlights the universal aspect of his inspiration, with numerous pieces serving almost as ‘homages’ to the great masers of past. But Atanian is no mere slave to tradition and artistic technique. He is rather the dutiful torch bearer, adding his own uniqueness before passing on the artistic flame to a future generation, eager to scale the Olympian heights of fine art. This sense of contributing through individual expression to an ongoing legacy is represented most powerfully in the many paintings by Atanian in which he combines in a single study the past, the present, and the future. Atanian’s combination of images from the Mediaeval period and form his vision of a science-fiction inspired future create a bold and dazzling pageant that, in visual terms, corresponds with the “Magic Realism” of great imaginative writers such Mikhail Bulgakoc, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. All great artists have been generous in giving themselves to the world. In our won time, Vladimir Atanian, a generous man, committed to creating art that serves the good, presents himself to the world in the form of the ‘The Artist as Visiting Light.’

Richard Nathan, M.A. (OXON)

Publisher and Editor of "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" Magazine