From Dark to Light - The Shroud of Turin Website

Art©2013 Latin Mass MagazineReprinted by PermissionFrom Darkto Lightthe Life and Art ofAriel Agemianby Gwyneth HolstonWhen I was homeschooled duringthe 1990s, I spent countlesshours intently studying the illustrationsin my 1950s textbooks. Faith andFreedom readers, Voyages in English,Our Holy Faith… all of my textbooksdepicted lucky children my age taughtby beautiful nuns. The children woredapper clothing and dwelt in a sunnyworld that radiated Catholic culture. Ifrequently compared the idyllic classmatesI should have had to my actualclassmates – three brothers whosenovelty had worn off long before.As I got older and ventured out ofmy living room and into the world, Iwas informed by a variety of sourcesthat nostalgia for the 1950s was theepitome of foolishness. They said thatthe era had only projected a wholesomeveneer, whereas its societyactually seethed with dysfunction.And yet, despite the evidence offeredto me, I couldn’t quite abandon thehope that there was at least some truthbehind the lovely images of my youth.Ascension by Ariel AgemianMy secret hope was finally rewardedwhen I met the daughter of artist ArielAgemian.Ariel Agemian was a prolificCatholic painter whose works includedover five hundredillustrations for theConfraternity of thePrecious Blood. Inhis daughter’s homein Glenwood Springs,Colorado, is a collectionof his drawingsand paintings. It isan oeuvre that documentsa life devoted toserving God through art. Annig Raleygenerously shared her father’s workwith me and told me his life story. 1Ariel Agemian was born in Brussa,Turkey, in 1904. At the age of ten,he saw his father killed during theArmenian revolution. The Turkishgovernment attempted to exterminateall ethnic Armenians by forced labor,death marches through the SyrianAriel Agemian wasa prolific Catholicpainter whose worksincluded over fivehundred illustrationsfor the Confraternityof the Precious Blood.Desert, and wholesale slaughter of overone million people. Agemian escapedthis fate with the help of a congregationof Mekhitarist monks in the ArmenianEastern Rite Catholic Church. Afterthe Armenian genocide at the handsof the Turks, the monks felt that thebest way to restore the culture was toeducate the many boys who had beenleft either orphaned or fatherless. At theage of eleven, Ariel left his mother andbrother and went with the monks to beeducated.At first, the monks hoped to trainyoung Ariel in Italy for the field ofmedicine, but he fainted at the sight ofblood. He was then sent to Venice tostudy with the monks for the priesthood.There he showed a prolific talentfor drawing. The monks admired hisartistic skill but told him that he mustchoose between art and God; he hadto decide between becoming a painteror a priest. He decided to serve Godthrough art. The monks sent him tostudy at the Venice Academy of FineArts, and at the age of twenty-one hereceived his Doctorate of philosophyand a Gold Award from the AssociazioneArtistica in 1926. In return forthe financial support from the monks,he painted two majorworks for the collegebased on religious Armenianhistory. Aftergraduation, he taughtpainting at Moorat Collegein Sevres, France,eventually devotinghimself to painting fulltime in his Paris studio.The resulting murals,portraits, and landscapes he createdreceived critical acclaim. He was evencommissioned to paint a portrait ofPope Pius XI.His major works during the 1930sincluded murals for Armenian churchesthroughout Paris as well as severallarge panels for Moorat College. Thepanels represent the four principalelements which make up the life of a66Summer 2013

From Dark to Light: The Life and Art of Ariel AgemianArtIt was amusing and sometimestiresome for me to dress in thosegarments the Pharisees and Christand Blessed Mother wore. It wasa practice in patience for me. Hewanted to capture the light and seethe folds. I am reminded, by thosewho knew me as a young girl, thatmy long curly blonde hair was inmost of his portraits of Christ. Mymother was the model for the manyof the Blessed Mothers.When his daughter, Annig, madeher First Communion, he had hermodel in five-minute intervals inbetween which she could run outand play until he finished her portrait(figure 8). She told me that she hadwanted a photograph “like the otherkids” at the time, but was resigned tositting for her portrait. It is a lovelypastel drawing of a real little girlwearing a delicate veil and dress thathad obviously been given to her byparents who valued the momentousoccasion of her First Holy Communion.Rather than have his daughterlook back at him, Ariel Agemiandirected her serious gaze towards herheavenly Father instead.In 1958, Pope Pius XII awardedAgemian a gold medal for his work,and he was knighted to the Order ofSaint Gregory. He died unexpectedlyfive years later from a heart attack.His wife died three years after that,leaving their twenty-three-year-olddaughter with the sole responsibilityof cataloging her father’s works,Figure 8: Annig’s First Communion, 1951 (pastel).Private Collection.having them restored, and solvingthe mysteries of the chronology andlocation of older works. In 1987, shetraveled to Paris and discovered avery large mural he had painted fora church in Arnoueville, France. Inthe mid-1990s, she traveled to Italyand visited a series of murals he hadpainted for the Mekhitarist monks inexchange for the education they hadgiven him. She has shouldered themonumental task of caring for theartwork in her possession but hopesto find a permanent home for themin museums and churches that willvalue his legacy.His work is on display at severalchurches in the United States. Hepainted an array of Carmelite Saintsfor the National Shrine of Our Ladyof Mount Carmel in Middletown,Figure 10: Oneness in Christ, 1958 (oil). Saint Bernard ofClairvaux Catholic Church, New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.New York (figure 9). The paintingOneness in Christ (figure 10)was donated to Saint Bernard ofClairveux Catholic Church in NewBloomfield, Pennsylvania. There arealso paintings at Holy Cross ArmenianCatholic Church in Belmont,Massachusetts; SaintMark’s ArmenianCatholic Churchin Wynnewood,Pennsylvania; andAnna Maria Collegein Paxton, Massachusetts.✠Ariel AgemianNotes1. The information in this essay was gathered during aninterview on January 26th, 2013, with Annig Raleyin her home in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, andher website www.agemianpaintings.com. All imagesprovided courtesy of Annig Raley.2. “Professor Ariel Agemian Paintings Decorate MooratCollege in Milan, Armenian Churches in Paris andCollege S. Moorat in Sevres” News Release, March 28,1938, New York, New York.Figure 9: All Carmelite Saints, 1941 (oil). National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middletown, New York.Gwyneth Holston iscurrently studyingacademic paintingand drawing at anatelier. Images of herwork are availableon her website www.gwynethholston.com.Summer 201369