Oganes Mkrtichevich Zardarian

Born Jan. 7 (20), 1918, in Kars, in present-day Turkey. Soviet painter. People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR (1963). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1958).

Zardarian studied at the Leningrad Academy of Arts from 1937 to 1941. He became a professor at the Kh. Abovian Pedagogical Institute in Yerevan in 1969. His works include historical paintings (for example, V. I. Lenin, also known as Eve of the Revolution, 1952, Armenian State Picture Gallery, Yerevan), pictures devoted to the heroic spirit of labor (for example, Victory of the Builders of the Sevan Hydroelectric Power Plant, 1947, Museum of Art of the Eastern Peoples, Moscow), landscapes that often include genre themes (for example, Spring, 1956, Tret’iakov Gallery), still lifes (for example, Spring Flowers, 1957, Tret’iakov Gallery), and por-traits (A. Gramsci’s Comrade-in-arms —Eduardo d’Onofrio,1969). Zardarian’s works are characterized by a festive and decorative combination of sonorous, radiant planes of color. He has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.