Background
Hovhannes Semerdjian, also known as Jean Jansem, was born on March 9, 1920 in Bursa, Turkey. He fled his home country and Greece in his early childhood, eventually settling in Paris, where he began to paint.
He studied in the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs.
Hovhannes Semerdjian, also known as Jean Jansem, was born on March 9, 1920 in Bursa, Turkey. He fled his home country and Greece in his early childhood, eventually settling in Paris, where he began to paint.
The first professional schools for Jansem became free academies of Montparnasse. He studied in the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. His teachers were Brianshon, Legjon and Udon. Jansem also studied at the Sabatie studio for a year.
Early paintings by Jansem were mainly to national issues. He had individual exhibitions in Paris, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Rome, Brussels, Lausanne, Beirut etc.
The subjects he portrayed were sometimes members of his family, dancers or models he had pose for him. Often in position of weakness, he gives them a resigned and virtuous air but he also represented subjects in a more erotic abandon, always showing the marks of time, wear and age. Inspired by Pieter Brueghel senior and James Ensor, his works are influenced by the Armenian Genocide and the Second World War. The exposed line work is fine and melts into smudged oil, with a transparent look, opening the way to the spiritual over the material in his quest for verity. He also experimented with engraving and lithography. It was in 1957 that his career really took off, and his works became known across Europe and the United States. When the Mitsukoshi Gallery presented an exhibition looking back at his work in 1969, he received major recognition in Japan.
In 1973 Jean visited Armenia for the first time. In 2001, 34 of his paintings were given to the Armenian Genocide Museum. Jansem died on August 27, 2013, aged 93, outside Paris.
Quotations: "The act of painting reveals who we are. We are betrayed by what we love."
Hovhannes Semerdjian was elected the President of the Young Artists' Saloon in 1956.
Quotes from others about the person
On 10 March 2010, the day after Jansem's 90th birthday, during a visit to France, the President of Armenia awarded Jansem a medal of honour saying the following, "Our nation is proud of you and values highly your art. While living outside Armenia, you have made our country more recognizable, extending our nation's good name all over the world."