Ara Vaginakovich Bekaryan was an Armenian artist who represented Realism and Expressionism. He also worked as an educator. The most part of his canvases is portraits, landscapes and genre paintings.
Background
Ara Vaginakovich Bekaryan was born on June 30, 1913, in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey to a family of Vaghinag Bekaryan, an Armenian pedagogue and author.
When Ara was twelve years old, the family relocated to Armenia where he was raised.
Ara’s younger brother, Tsolak Bekaryan, was a musician and educator.
Education
Ara Bekaryan became a student of the Yerevan Art and Technical College in 1929 (currently F. Terlemezyan Yerevan State College of Arts) where he had been taught by the notable Armenian realist Sedrak Arakelovich Arakelyan for three years.
He pursued his studies at the Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (currently Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts). One of his teachers was the Russian painter Alexander Osmerkin. Bekaryan received his diploma in 1939.
The start of Ara Bekaryan’s career can be counted from the military service during the Second World War. He joined the Soviet Army in 1939, reached Austria and was wounded. He returned to his homeland in 1945.
He joined the teacher’s staff of the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts where he had served as a professor till 1986. He also read lectures at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography.
The first debut solo exhibition took place in Yerevan two years later. The painter demonstrated to the public the landscapes of his homeland and the multiple portraits of his relatives, friends and colleagues, including his father, brother, the painter Alexander Osmerkin and others.
During his lifetime, Bekaryan found the source of inspiration for his colourful and sunny pieces of art travelling around Armenia and depicting the everyday life of the country – small streets and courtyards, mothers and their children, rural landscapes in autumn or spring and the figures of working people. Many of his most important canvases were made in the picturesque Ararat Plain.
Ara Bekaryan was married to the painter Diya Andreyevna Gubanova. The family produced one child, a girl named Dzovinar. She followed her parents' steps and became an artist.