Armine Kalenz

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Armine Kalenz ( Armenian Արմինե Գալենց , maiden name Paronyans , born August 18, 1920 in Damascus , Syria , † November 22, 2007 in Yerevan , Armenia ) was an Armenian painter.

life and work

Exhibition by Armine Kalenz

In the year she was born, the von Kalenz family returned to their Turkish homeland in Adapazarı . However, as unrest and charges against Armenians broke out again in various parts of Turkey and their father had died, their mother fled with her two children, leaving her son Aram in an American orphanage. After the escape, Kalenz lived with her mother in Istanbul and moved to Aleppo in 1926 . In 1931, after completing primary school at Haigazian College in Aleppo, she moved to Jerusalem , Palestine , where she attended the Holy Targmanchats School until 1933. She then moved from Jerusalem again to Aleppo, where she attended the French college of the Saint Joseph Convent. After a stay in Rome , she met the painter Harutjun Kalenz in Beirut and became his student. In 1939 she participated as a member of the working group for the design of the Lebanon Pavilion in the International Exhibition in New York , as a result of which she was awarded a certificate of honor by the Lebanese government. In 1940 she returned to Aleppo and began her individual work. At that time she was the only artist in Aleppo, where her first exhibition also took place in the Hotel Paron. In 1943 she married Harutjun Kalenz in St. Nishan's Church in Beirut, where the painting of St. Mary by Harutjun Kalenz was painted. The couple had two sons, Armen and Saro . In 1946 she moved with her family with the first group of repatriates to the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic and in 1947 became a member of the artists' association there. In 1947 the first exhibition of the works of the repatriates was organized, in which she was the only female participant. The exhibition featured her oil paintings on canvas and a number of watercolors painted in Lebanon. After taking part in the exhibition of the new works of Armenian painters in 1948, the Kalenz couple were strongly criticized and they were not allowed to continue participating in the republic's exhibitions. In 1967 she was awarded the title of Honorary Artist of Soviet Armenia. In 1973 a solo exhibition was opened in the Armenian Museum in Paris. She had painted the 20 canvases on display at the exhibition in France during her three-month trip. In 1975 she visited Canada and painted a number of landscape paintings, which were exhibited at a solo exhibition at the Tekeyan Union Club. In 1982 she returned to Syria and began to work on the triptych “Prayer”. In 1991, she traveled to the United States to work productively and returned to Yerevan in 1993. In 1996 she published the book "Memories of Harutjun Kalenz". In 2003 she worked on her second book, "Reflections: Armine Galentz about Herself," which was published in 2004. In 2004 she had an exhibition in the Albert and Tove Boyajian Gallery in the Academy of Fine Arts in Yerevan, in which works from her painted pastel flower series were shown. This was the last solo show in her life as her eyesight deteriorated so badly that she was almost deprived of the opportunity to paint. In 2005 she presented her screen “Prometheus” as part of the “Creative Combination” project carried out by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

In 2010 the house of Harutjun and Armine Kalenz in Yerevan was named the Kalenz Museum with 200 pictures and more than 200 graphic works as well as archive material.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1940: Hotel Paron, Aleppo
  • 1945: Academy of Fine Arts, Beirut
  • 1962: Solo exhibition in the Armenian Artists Association
  • 1973: Solo exhibition in the Armenian Museum, Paris
  • 1975: Club of the Tekeyan Union, Canada
  • 1980: Solo exhibition in the Artists Union of Armenia
  • 1982: Solo exhibition "East", Aleppo
  • 1984: Union of Georgia, Tbilisi
  • 1988: on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Artem Alichanjan in the Institute of Physics, Yerevan
  • 1992: Solo exhibition at the Pan-Armenian National Center, Los Angeles
  • 1994: Solo exhibition in the Armenian Artists Association
  • 2003: International Women's Exhibition, Moscow
  • 2016: Gallery of the Kulturhaus Karlshorst, Berlin

literature

  • Armine Kalents: Nerir indz, Harutʻyun: Arminen Harutʻyun Kalentsʻi masin, Armenia, 1997
  • Four life paths of two artist couples in the Armenian tradition: Miriam Aslamazyan, Nikolai Nikogosyan, Harutyun Kalentz, Armine Kalentz: Catalog on the occasion of the exhibition in the Kulturhaus Karlshorst Berlin from May 14th to July 3rd, 2016

Web links

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Kalenz, Armine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Galentz, Armine; Paronyans, Armine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Armenian painter and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Damascus , Syria
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 2007
Place of death Yerevan , Armenia