The Drawings of Vagan Avagyan

Vagan Avagyan was born in Yerevan on October 7, 1960, to the poet Vartan Avagyan (whose artistic pseudonym is Vanatur) and Manush Avagyan, a history teacher. During his school years, Avagyan frequented the arts club at the Young Pioneers¿ Palace. His interests included Leonardo da Vinci and the art of ancient Greece. From 1971 until 1974, Avagyan participated in exhibits of the Children¿s Art Gallery in Yerevan. In 1975, he entered the Terlemezyan Fine Art College. For his graduation project, he illustrated and formatted the children¿s fairy tale ¿The Lying Hunter,¿ which was published as a book in Yerevan in 1979. In 1979, Avagyan entered the cinematographic art faculty of the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Fine Arts. While attending the institute, he illustrated and formatted over 20 books. In 1985, Avagyan graduated from the institute, exhibiting his work at the Artist¿s House in Yerevan. In 1985 he graduated from the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Fine Arts and was admitted to the Young Artists¿ Union. In the fall of the same year, Avagyan was drafted into the army (he came out of the army in 1987). In 1988, he joined the Yerevan Marionette Theater as an artist-director, staging the play ¿The Golden Chick.¿ In 1990, Avagyan moved to Moscow. Since 1995, he has been exhibiting at the Central Artists¿ House in Moscow. From 1996 until 2001, his works were shown at the Martin Art Gallery in Switzerland, where in 2001 he had a personal exibition. In 2002, Avagyan became a member of the International Arts Foundation. He has often exhibited in the Manege. In 2010, he painted frescoes in the Armenian Cultural Center in Moscow. In 2011, he illustrated and formatted Afanasyev¿s Russian tales; in 2015, he made a series of illustrations for Mikhail Bulgakov¿s novel The Master and Margarita. Most of Vagan Avagyan¿s works are in private collections in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia.