Armenisches Atelier (Armenian studio)

Description

Zinc etch­ing and engrav­ing, 18×16 cm (plate size), 2021. Limited edi­tion of 6, numbered and signed.

Near this site in Saint-Petersburg we had been invited for tea by a couple of Armenian paint­ers. To the con­trary of what this lofty view might sug­gest, they had their stu­dio in a cramped base­ment with little space, little light and an amaz­ing explo­sion of pro­ductiv­ity. In a way they’re the realest paint­ers we’ve met in Piter: Technically pro­fi­cient but first and fore­most with stor­ies of their own to tell instead of repro­du­cing regur­git­ated mater­i­al as the academy a few metres away is some­times wont to do.

At first I con­sidered a more tongue-in-cheek name, “Armenian embassy” – then I double-checked and found that coin­cid­ent­ally there’s an actu­al Armenian con­su­late just a few roads away, and went for the less con­fus­ing title.