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 Armenian Women Clay Artists Resource

This directory has been complied in collaboration with Armenian Women Artists Հայ կին Արուեստագէտներ, who bring awareness and recognition to Armenian women artists, both in Armenia and in diaspora communities via their instagram platform.

We consider this resource as a work in progress, and will be delighted to hear from anyone who has more information on the artists listed or suggestions for other historical artists.

Following Eranuhi’s birth, the Aslamazyan family moved to Leninakan (present-day Gyumri, Armenia). [From 1924-1926], Eranuhi received her painting education at the Alexandrapol Painting School—the first painting school in Transcaucasia, founded in 1905. She continued her education at the Yerevan Fine Arts College (1926-1928) and the Leningrad School of Painting (1931-1937)

In 1937, she entered the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists and started taking part in exhibitions organized by the Artists’ Council of Yerevan, Leningrad and Moscow. In 1943, she moved to Moscow but paid regular visits back home to her native Armenia. 

Aslamazyan received several awards, diplomas and recognition throughout her career. In 1956, she was recognized by the Committee of Soviet Women for her participation in the International Seminar “Women's Equality in USSR”. Travel impressions and creative visits to numerous countries, including India and Egypt played an important role in her paintings and ceramics works. She lived and worked in Moscow until the end of her life on February 4, 1998. 

Hripsime Simonyan in her studio, ca. Courtesy of Armenian Museum of Moscow

Simonyan graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts with a major in sculpture and minor in ceramics. In 1943, Simonyan and her family settled in Yerevan, where almost immediately, she arranged a personal exhibition of her ceramic works. Shortly after, she was admitted to the Artists’ Union of Armenia, where she founded a section on applied arts after defending her diploma in 1945.

In 1946-1947, Simonyan organized the first trip to regions of Armenia to get acquainted with the work of folk artists. Soon after this trip, she began to speak at various artist conferences and produced reports in print on Armenian decorative arts and folk art. From 1948 to 1949, she served as chief artist and sculptor of the local porcelain factory in Yerevan.

In 1956, she founded the ceramics department of the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia. In 1965, she became assistant professor of the sculpture department. She received the honorary title of People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1974 and has been awarded with numerous diplomas throughout Europe. 

Simonyan’s artistic development grew from porcelain and clay miniatures, to pottery vessels with architectural forms, as well as large clay sculptures, which can be found scattered throughout public and municipal buildings, streets and parks of Yerevan, Gyumri and Moscow. Her works are also kept in the National Gallery of Armenia and various other cultural institutions in Yerevan and Tbilisi. Considered to be the founder of popular sculpture and Armenian applied arts, her legacy continues on with her public art pieces.

Simonyan died on September 28, 1998 in Yerevan, Armenia.

Sources & further reading

Bravo Armenia news article

Golos Armenii article

Armenia Sputnik article

Matyan

Documentary on Hripsime Simonyan. Courtesy of the Armenian Ethnography Museum

Lovingly nicknamed the “Mother of Iranian Sculpture,” Teryan is best known for introducing modern sculpture to the academic centres in Iran and establishing the Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Tehran.

Born on December 31, 1930, in Tehran, Iran, Teryan studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Art. She found the scope of University of Tehran to be too narrow, both ideologically and geographically, and thus she decided to continue her studies in Paris at the University of Beaux Arts. She could have easily stayed in Paris to establish her artistic career, but ultimately, she returned to Iran in 1961, where she began a teaching career at the Faculty of Decorative Arts. 

Following the Iranian Revolution, the teaching of sculpture was prohibited in Tehran and Teryan had to continue teaching in secrecy. In 2007, the Iranian government organized a special party dedicated to the honoured sculptor at Imam Ali Museum in Tehran. She first exhibited her work in 2008 at Tehran Silver Publishing. Soon after, she started teaching sculpture at Azad University. 

Teryan’s works can be seen everywhere in Iran, and they are almost obligatory on the grounds of Armenian churches and cultural centres. She is most famous for her monumental statues of historical Armenian figures. A statue of early medieval Armenian linguist, composer and theologian, Mesrop Mashtots, is located at the Armenian Holy Translators Church in Tehran. She also created a bust of Iranian-Armenian revolutionary leader and national hero Yeprem Khan, located in the yard of Saint Mary Armenian Church in Tehran.

Teryan died on March 7, 2019 in Tehran at the age of 89. Following her death, a number of Iranian state officials considered it their duty to publicly express their condolences, including Iranian diplomat and former Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Bahram Ghasemi.

Sources & further reading

Hamshahri Online article

BBC Persia feature

Public TV Company of Armenia video feature

Poshtebam Online magazine feature

Armenia Sputnik article

A Portrait of Armenian Women In Iran by Nazik Armenakyan

Aslamazyan was born on October 20, 1907 in the village of Bash-Shirak, Kars, not far from Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri, Armenia) and graduated form the art studio in Alexandropol. She later moved to Yerevan to study under the tutelage of Soviet-Armenian painters Sedrak Arakelyan and Stepan Aghajanian.

She  was influenced by the modernist and academic traditions of both Russian and European painting, but also drew on the rich traditions of painting from her native Armenia. While she is more recognized for her paintings, Aslamazyan was also an accomplished ceramicist.

Shortly after, Aslamazyan moved to Moscow to continue her artistic studies. Despite facing financial challenges, by the end of the 1930s,  she was able to excel and establish herself as an established artist in Soviet-Russian cultural circles, receiving numerous prizes and acknowledgements across the Soviet Union. She was awarded People’s Artist of the Soviet Union in 1990.

Beyond her successful artistic career, Aslamazyan became an inadvertent cultural ambassador of Soviet Armenia. Despite living in Moscow, she was devoted to her native homeland, representing Armenian culture during international visits, including several diplomatic trips to India. She never stopped praising Armenia as her first and foremost inspiration in art.

Aslamazyan died on July 16, 2006 in Moscow, Russia.

"When I'm tired of painting, I start working with clay. But the themes for ceramics and paintings are suggested by life." - Mariam Aslamazyan

Sources & Additional references

Aslamazyan Museum

EVN Report article

Google Arts and Culture

Mirror Spectator article

Ilya Gutman's “Three Monologues,” featuring Mariam Aslamazyan, 1976. (3:21 includes a selection of Aslamazyan’s ceramic works and Aslamazyan working in her studio)

In 1954, Balian married into the Balians, a family of Armenian potters, in Bethlehem, Palestine. In 1955, Setrag and Marie moved to Jordan where they had three children: Sylva, Neshan and Ohan. For almost 10 years, due to the agreement between the partners Neshan and Mgrditch, Marie could not introduce her talent to the ceramic studio. In 1964, as the partners separated, Marie was finally able to pour her artistic knowledge and talent into the Balian studio. As she slowly started moving away from the traditional static designs to the more free-form art, the repetitive Iznik patterns started to take life with the introduction of her dancing animals and moving trees.

Marie’s artistic revolution combined with Setrag’s technical expertise and master potter skills, paved the way for the international art scene to take notice of the Balian studio. This in turn translated into increased media coverage, local and international custom ceramic projects and worldwide museum exhibitions. The 1992 “Views of Paradise” at the Smithsonian Institution, which included more than 20 wall-size panels, would crown the achievements of the Balian family. Further exhibitions followed at the ALMA Museum in Boston, the Eretz Israel Museum in Israel and Alicante, Spain.

In 2017, after two years of deteriorating health, Marie quietly passed away in the same studio where she worked for the past 50 years. She remains an indispensable part of the Balian family ceramic studio. Biography courtesy of Balian family.

A graduate of the Transcaucasian School of Architecture in Tbilisi (1939) and the Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts (1946), Mirzoyan later taught at the Terlemezyan State College of Fine Arts (1947-1968) and the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts, where she served as Head of the Sculpture Department for 25 years. She was awarded Honoured Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1967 and 1986, as well as the Soviet Union’s Medal “For Distinguished Labour” in 1956.

Mirzoyan participated in a number of local and international exhibitions, having shown her work in Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Poland, Germany and the United States. She created several sculptures and monuments and worked with various materials, including marble, bronze, volcanic tuff, porcelain and wood, which were installed both in Armenia and abroad. As a dedicated educator, Mirzoyan made a significant contribution to the future generation of Armenian sculptors. She died on August 7, 2016 in Yerevan, Armenia.