The given Thesis is the first comprehensive research of Valeriy Arutyunovych Geghamyan’s creativity in the context of interaction between the easel art and monumental art. This Thesis is the first paper that presents a holistic study of the artistic heritage of V. Geghamyan, systematizes the artist’s works be the time of their creation and determines the stylistic features of stages of “The Odessa Period” of creativity (1963–2000); it also provides an analysis of the artist's compositions; characterizes the components of the artistic method and peculiarities of composition-spatial structure of his main works.
It has been established that V. Geghamyan mastered the basics of artistic proficiency at the Yerevan State Art School (1940–1945) and the Yerevan State Art Institute (1945–1950), where he was trained by famous Armenian artist M. Saryan. The early stage of V. Geghamyan’s creativity reflects the realistic method of depicting the surrounding reality. Starting from the 1960s, the realistic bedrock of his works was gradually changing by acquiring the features of “modern” style. His works of the 1970s – 1980s, showing the signs of artistic transformation and formation of a new reality, already reflect the worldview foundations of modernism through manifestation of fauvism, expressionism and impressionism elements.
The heritage of V. Geghamyan was systematized in creating figurative compositions of “The Odessa period” of creativity. The following thematically-figurative and artistic features of his compositions were defined: a sketch for the mosaic of Odessa atelier "The Birch" (1964), "Three Ballerinas" (mid 1970s), "Carpathian Motives" (1977-1978), "Genius and the Crowd" (1970s), "Bride-Show" (mid 1970s), “Bloody Wedding” (1985–2000), “Khachkar” (1988–2000).
The large-scale works “Bloody Wedding” and “Khachkar”, created on cardboard, became the highest achievement of V. Geghamyan and his creative testament. In these works, the situation of synthetic combination of generic characteristics is being revealed completely apparently, both at the level of material-technological, compositional-structural features, and, accordingly, at the level of figurative and content-related expression. It has been substantiated that it is reasonable to research the works of V. Geghamyan through the dominant manifestation of the aspects of generic definitions – form, quality and function, where search of interaction between the depth and plane characteristics of the artistic space is an important link.
The theoretical understanding of the essence of functional and qualitative aspects of generic definitions still requires a more accurate definition, as well as setting the criteria, boundaries and phenomenology of the easel/monumental art in all variety of expressive means. Artistic practice usually plays an important role in theory development, in which Valeriy Geghamyan’s creativity occupies a worthy place.
