26 Facts About Ara Harutyunyan

Ara Harutyunyan was an Armenian monumental sculptor, graphic artist, People's Artist of Armenia, corresponding member of Academy of Fine Arts of USSR and Russian Academy of Arts, professor.

Ara Harutyunyan is the creator of monumental statue Mother Armenia installed on the heights of Yerevan, which became one of the most popular symbols of Armenia.

Ara Harutyunyan's work is notable by the variety of genres and compositions used, by its versatility and magnitude.

Ara Harutyunyan created more than 40 monumental and monumental-decorative works, sculptural complex in Armenia, Russia, France, Italy, Philippines and other countries, as well as reliefs, gravestones, easel sculptures, dozens of drawings and graphic works.

Ara Harutyunyan created its central vertical, the grand "Mother Armenia" monumental statue.

Ara Harutyunyan was born on March 28,1928, in Yerevan.

Ara Harutyunyan's father was a musician who worked for the Armenian Philharmonics and the A Spendiaryan opera and ballet Theatre, the artistic director and conductor of which was K Saradjev.

From his early childhood A Harutyunyan demonstrated an outstanding talent for the arts and a serious interest in sculpture.

Ara Harutyunyan was a student at the workshop of G Aharonyan, who introduced his students to the history of the European culture, expanding their knowledge and forming their tastes.

In 1952 Ara Harutyunyan received the prize of Ministry of Culture of the Armenian SSR for the project of the monument to Anani Shirakatsi.

Since the 1960s, Ara Harutyunyan entered a new and amazingly productive stage in his monumental sculpture work.

Thanks to Ara Harutyunyan, Armenia got its first narrative reliefs related to the architecture of the buildings.

In 1970 Ara Harutyunyan was awarded the Diploma of the Union of Architects of the USSR for his reliefs of the Erebuni Museum.

In 1960, together with architect V Sarkisyan, Harutyunyan erected a monument to the heroes of Zangezur in the city of Goris.

In 1964, Ara Harutyunyan was awarded a medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR for Sayat-Nova spring-monument.

In 1967, Ara Harutyunyan implemented one of his main monumental projects, the Mother Armenia monumental statue that was installed in the Victory Park in Yerevan.

Ara Harutyunyan talked about the process of creating the Mother Armenia monument in his interview with the Sovetakan Arvest newspaper.

Ara Harutyunyan said that according to his idea the Mother Armenia monument was to become the embodiment of courage, heroism and victory.

Ara Harutyunyan's winged horses and the eagle on the Victory wall in the Sardarapat Battle complex are almost heraldic.

In 1976, the Musa Ler memorial by Ara Harutyunyan was erected on a hill near the Musa Ler village in the Armavir region of Armenia commemorating the fight of inhabitants of Armenian villages at the foot of Mount Musa Dag against the Turkish army in 1915.

The documentary Sculptor Ara Harutyunyan includes some rare filming of the sculptor working on the monument.

Ara Harutyunyan paid his respects to the Austrian writer Franz Werfel who wrote Forty Days of Musa Dag, the novel describing these historical events.

Ara Harutyunyan donated the sculpture portrait of the writer to the Musa Ler memorial.

In 1988 Ara Harutyunyan made his dream come true by erecting a monument to Komitas in the park of the Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas.

Ara Harutyunyan spoke about this creative idea in his interview to the Yerekoyan Yerevan newspaper in 1977.

The artistic significance and value of the artistic legacy of Harutyunyan was noted by leading art scholars including A Kamensky, V Tseltner, G Knabe, R Abolina, I Ivanova, A Strigalev, S Kaplanova, B Zurabov, M Ayvazyan, and S Orlov.