Razmik Samvelts

The artist as storyteller — ask painter Razmik Samvelts about any painting he has on display, and be prepared for guidance into the rich particulars of his whereabouts and the experiences that informed the piece. He is an abstract painter, but his working process is closely subjective, and the artist’s personality brings his work to life. Understanding the story of this artist significantly enhances the experience of his art, and the circumstances of being a contemporary artist whose work is inseparable from the community.

Artistic Vision & Armenian Cultural Roots in Los Angeles

Samvelts is a living national treasure of Armenia, living in Los Angeles. His personal artistic vision is closely interlaced with tremendous cultural events that have directly impacted the course of his career, making him as much a contemporary artist ahead of his time as he is at the mercy of history’s progress. Discussing the source of his work and his understanding of art, he reflects on his journey with a certain rhythm of point and counterpoint. One message is a spiritual vision addressed to any individual, where life is about seeking the fulfillment of a predetermined purpose. Another message is strength that comes from having close roots as his art played a significant role in his culture’s assertion of independent identity in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a continuation of a long history of the need to assert independence within the confines of empires and occupiers.

The artist’s career was deeply intertwined in Armenian culture from the beginning. Less in the sense of an individual reporting an experience, he is a custodian of the arts arm of a national identity. Children of the Los Angeles Armenian families who show an inclination for visual arts are entrusted to him to receive instruction in the arts, delivered in their own language and infused with their culture. The studio and instruction center he founded in Glendale in 1999 is a true community hall, an enrichment program provided by the community to maintain its own integrity.

“Do what your heart says, it always tells you something better to do. If you’re true to yourself you will arrive somewhere worthwhile. This is the message that needs to be taught about life. Life is a small light in a vast darkness, lit for a short time. Discover what your purpose is, and do your job wholeheartedly — that’s all.”

In his case, he sees a parallel between fulfilling his heart’s instruction to be a painter, and the role that has come of it for preserving his own culture and becoming an instructor in his own community’s roots. “One should speak their own language,” he will explain, “Roots start in the place where people who are related are speaking with each other. If you’re not good for your family, how can you be good for the community?”

Early Training in Yerevan & The Story Behind “Song” (1983)

Born in Yerevan, then the Soviet Republic of Armenia, he recalls at an early age copying the drawings from ancient history books by David of Sassoun, and wanting from the beginning to engage in art. Gaining an education in the arts within a Soviet-led republic wasn’t exactly simple, and required a particular tenacity. Attending school was free, but the young artist did not want to fulfill the requirement that students teach for two years before proceeding to university, wishing to satisfy his desire to continue the study of painting. He had completed a full three years at university before his omission was discovered, and he was unexpectedly removed from the school losing credit for that time. Before being able to return to school he was required to work hard labor, laying railroad line in the swamps and cold of Chita, a Siberian region near the border of China.

Returning to university, and resistant to all guidance regarding approved Socialist Realist subject matter, he painted “Song” in 1983 as his final diploma project. The subject was Komitas Vardapet, the revered Armenian priest, ethnomusicologist, and choral composer who suffered severe trauma during the 1915 genocide conducted by the Ottoman Empire, surrounded by haunting figures of villagers in traditional regional costumes who vanished during the deportations. Because the subject and expressive visual language defied official Soviet academic conventions, acceptance of the painting — which was scheduled to tour the country alongside other graduate thesis works — was stalled by school authorities and cultural commissars for eleven months.

Eventually the canvas was accepted and exhibited on tour, but at the conclusion of the exhibition it was never returned to the young graduate. After persistent investigation, Samvelts discovered that the painting had been quietly cast out onto the exposed roof of one of the university buildings to be destroyed by winter snow and rain. With the assistance of a fellow former student, he broke into the building at night, rescued the snow-covered canvas from the rooftop, and painstakingly restored the damaged paint layers in his studio.

That rescued canvas, “Song,” subsequently became an enduring visual emblem for the global Armenian diaspora — the two-thirds of the Armenian nation living beyond the borders of the homeland following the genocide. Reproduced in cultural periodicals, commemorative books, and community archives around the world, the painting anchored Samvelts’ reputation and artistic mission for decades.

From Candlelit Yerevan & Beirut to Southern California

During the severe economic blockade and energy crisis of post-Soviet Armenia in the 1990s, Samvelts continued painting relentlessly despite having no heat, running water, or electricity in his Yerevan workspace. By 1999, when a visiting art critic entered his studio, the room was stacked so densely with completed canvases against the windows that Samvelts was literally painting by candlelight. Following a sold-out exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon — home to one of the Middle East’s most vibrant Armenian artistic communities — his work caught the attention of Western collectors and patrons. That recognition led to an invitation to live and paint in a sunlit studio apartment in Laguna Beach, California, marking his first experience in the United States, where he eventually established his permanent home and Glendale art academy.

Major Works & Thematic Overview

Samvelts draws his subjects from personal and cultural history, and behind the distinction that can be determined visually there is a story for every painting. He was an eyewitness to the aftermath of a devastating tremor, producing “Earthquake 88.” Drawing from his passion for classical music, a harmonious field surfaced in “Blue Symphony,” which was placed on loan to LACMA. Several paintings are dedicated to the subject of the Last Supper, while others relate to the attempt to capture form and shape from the experience of human emotion. His work is entirely integrated — the life’s work of an individual painter, family member, and community educator. In a very real sense, Razmik Samvelts stands as a living challenge to look beyond art as a detached commercial profession, and instead understand creative talent and personal vocation as inseparable from service to one’s community — life, work, and purpose united as one.