Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, Lavinia Alexandrovna

Born in Tbilisi in the family of the famous Armenian artist Alexander Alexandrovich Bazhbeuk-Melikyan ^[2] . The children of his father from his second marriage - son Vazgen and daughter Zuleika also became artists.

In 1944 she graduated from the Art College. P. Terlemezyan in Yerevan, and in 1951, Moscow Art Institute Surikov . After graduating from the institute, Lavinia worked on a mosaic panel in the Moscow metro under the guidance of USSR national artist P. D. Korin. After that she returned to Armenia and worked there.

September 19, 2000 Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan received the citizenship of the Russian Federation ^[3] .

The artist painted landscapes of Armenia, paintings from the life of Armenian peasants; in recent years, she worked mainly in the workshop, creating portraits of friends-artists, self-portraits, still lifes, which art historians consider the peak of her work ^[4] .

The art of L. Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was greatly influenced by the work of her father - Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan and Martiros Saryan ^[4] . Her works combine the traditions of the Russian realistic school and the national flavor of Armenian art.

The artist is depicted in the picture of her friend - Soviet and Russian artist Dmitry Zhilinsky “ By the sea. The Family ”(1964).

Director of the National Center for Aesthetic Education, art critic Henrik Igityan said about the artist’s work: “At the beginning of their work, many artists paint good paintings, but over time their work becomes more dull and uninteresting. But Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan is not one of such artists. On the contrary, her latest works are even deeper and stronger ” ^[5] . Armenian art critic, former director of the National Art Gallery Shahen Khachatryan noted that objects and their beauty have always been in the spotlight of Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan. Mariam Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, the daughter of the artist, noted that the canvases exhibited interesting psychological types, landscapes of our beautiful Armenia, still lifes: “Nowadays, rarely do any artists focus on still lifes. We so often pass by objects and things around us and do not pay attention to their beauty. And to see beauty in everything and to be able to portray it is a special gift ” ^[5] .

• People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1983).
• Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR (1967).
• Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (08.25.1997) - for his merits in the field of art ^[6] .
• Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1988).
• Full member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2002).
• Silver medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1981) ^[7] .

• 1979 - House of the artist. Yerevan ^[8]
• 1980 - Moscow ^[9]
• 10/01/2008 - 10/14/2008 - in the Union of Artists of Armenia, Yerevan ^[5]
• 04/10/2007 - 05/06/2007 - at the Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow ^[10]

• Portrait of a father, Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan (1960)
• Mother (1961) ^[11]
• Still Life with Books (1970)
• Self Portrait (1978)
• Artist Nina Zhilinskaya (1984)
• Portrait of the Agabalyants sisters (1994)
• Portrait of M. Khachatryan (1996)

• “Rocks. Shorzha ” (1976), State Picture Gallery of Armenia

Portrait, still life. Album of reproductions (Auth. Text and comp. G.S. Igityan), Moscow, 1982