As spring comes to Yerevan the streets are more and more bustling, both with residents emerging from their heated apartments and with tourists beginning to arrive for the warm season. The streets of Yerevan have a lot to offer, but by far my favorite pastime on my days off is to sit in any one of the many, many parks scattered around the city center and statue-watch.
I’m far from the only person of this opinion, if the crowd of people battling for the best selfie angle with the Botero statue of a reclining nude on the Cascade is any indication. Public art, and art in general, in Yerevan are popular topics of conversation here. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to here has a favorite local art museum and a favorite statue (or genre of statues). The aforementioned Botero statue is an especially popular subject of debate, due both to the high profile of the artist and to the casual immodesty of the subject, but statues of architects, poets, visual artists and revolutionaries serve as meeting points, casual date spots, and just quiet places to rest in the shade. The constant engagement with the arts here has deep roots; from medieval creators of ornate manuscripts and miniatures to the legendary seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky, Armenian culture has consistently been a hub of artistic expression.
Ivan Aivazovsky (Hovhannes Aivazian) holds his palette in downtown Yerevan
This cultural legacy is alive and well. As the weather warms, I see more and more young hobbyists and art students in the streets and the parks, painting the blossoming trees or sketching architecture en plein air and, often, frantically packing their supplies in a mad dash to escape the wild afternoon storms that have arrived with the spring season.
Young artists with their easels in a tunnel in the Hrazdan River Gorge
Near the end of my stay here I have started sketching some of my favorite places and art pieces, trading in my statue-watching time for impromptu drawing sessions. This is a way to capture happy memories on paper, but more importantly, it’s been an opportunity to take part in the vibrant visual arts community here, even on an incredibly small scale, and engage in public spaces with other people with the same hobby.
The controversial Botero sculpture (above I), a portrait of a mother and child (above II), monuments to Vahan Teryan (poet) (below I) and Komitas (composer) (below II)
One of my favorite interactions I’ve had here in Yerevan happened on one of the first warm days this year, while I was drawing around noon on the Cascade. I was taking my first swing at the ever-vexing Botero statue and just couldn’t get quite what I wanted; the lighting was confusing and the facial proportions were just a little off. As I was scribbling and scowling, a kid around 8 years old came up with his grandmother, sat next to me, and asked what I was drawing. A little embarrassed, I answered that I was trying to draw the statue but it wasn’t going to plan. He looked over at his grandmother and said with utter sincerity that they had just been talking about art, and that it doesn’t have to look like real life, because every artist gets to have their own point of view. Touché, kid, touché.
Inside my favorite coffee shop
Dan E. Davidson Fellowship Recipient
Title VIII Fellowship for Overseas Language Study and Research Recipient
Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program
Yerevan, Armenia, Spring 2024