Eczacýbaþý Virtual Museum 2006,
commemorates Givanian, who lived between 1848 – 1906 with a retrospective exhibtion. The exhibition containing 75 works “100 years after his death, Istanbul Painter Mýgýrdiç Givanian“, curated by Garo Kürkman and Haþim Nur Gürel dwells on the painters main themes Maidens Tower, Fenerbahçe and the Bosphorus and aims to introduce and remind us of the painter once again.
Garo Kürkman describes Givanian’s paintings as the following: “As mentioned previously Givanian’s nature paintings consisted mostly of the beauties of Istanbul and environs, and the sceneries of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn known by all Istanbulites. His imaginative and tasteful works with plain and complicated compositions of sceneries, trees and grass almost alive with wide brush strokes, the twinkling effect of clouds in the sky are solid proof of his strong artistic talent and colourfulness. The works also reveal a more refined and more adept to nature method from an artist with techniques of a highly skilled theatre stage decorator
| Mýgýrdiç Givanian | |
Givanian was born in Ýstanbul in 1848. He was the son of Ohannes Givan, a violinist at the court of Sultan Abdülmecid, and the elder brother of the well known painter and art teacher Harutyun Givanian. In the 1860s Givanian studied art under the painter Apraham Sakayan at the Armenian school in Beþiktaþ. In 1874 he studied at the Academy of Drawing and Painting opened on Hamalbaþý Street in Beyoðlu by the French artist Pierre Désiré Guillemet. In 1881, four of his still-lifes were shown at an exhibition held by the Elifba Club in Belediye Bahçesi in Tepebaþý. In 1894 an exhibition of his paintings was held at the Russian Embassy in Beyoðlu. He worked on murals for the Beylerbeyi, Çýraðan and Yýldýz palaces, and painted scenery for Ýstanbul theatres. He also played in Italian operas. Some of his paintings are in the collections of Ýstanbul Municipal Museum, Congregazione Armena Mechitarista cloister on the island of St. Lazzaro in Venice, and many are in private collections. Between 1894 and 1905 he lived in Odessa and St. Petersburg, and died in 1906 in Ýstanbul. |
| The Painter That Reflected Istanbul Onto Canvas | |
Curator: Garo Kürkman Mýgýrdiç Givanian (1848-1906) As A Child With his talent as a painter and his unique activities Mýgýrdiç Hovhannesi Givanian has always succeeded in being a one-of-a-kind and interesting character in all of Istanbul’s various environments. Givanian was born in 1848, in the very picturesque district of Beþiktaþ located on the European shores of Istanbul where the Armenian community resided mostly. His father, Hovhannes Aga or otherwise known as Master Civan, was a musician serving at the palace of Sultan Mecid at the time. Nevertheless working as a royal musician did not guarantee welfare. The salaries were irregular and the crowded family of five boy |