EXHIBITION “SURVIVAL THROUGH CREATIVITY” COMMEMORATES 90TH ANNIVERSARY
OF ARMENIANS’ GENOCIDE
YEREVAN, MARCH 17. ARMINFO. Maine Haley Farm Gallery will open
“Survival Through Creativity” exhibit featuring works by Berj Kailian
and Samuel Bak – two survivor artists of the Armenian Genocide and
Jewish Holocaust respectively. The exhibit commemorates the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the 60th anniversary of the
Jewish Holocaust.
Foster’s online reports, “Survival Through Creativity” reflects the
artists’ creative outlook toward life having endured, witnessed and
survived the atrocities of the 1915 Armenian Genocide perpetrated by
the Ottoman Turks and the WWII Jewish Holocaust by Hitler’s Nazi
Germany. Works of Samuel Bak are available in cooperation with the
artist and Pucker Gallery. Exhibit commemorates Armenian Genocide and
Jewish Holocaust with works of two survivor artists
Kailian was born in Armenia in 1914. Her extended family was one of
the last to be driven out. Her father, imprisoned and tortured was
later asked to dig his own grave and was buried alive by the Turkish
authorities. Only nine months old, Kailian was wrapped and tied to her
mother’s back and along with her three siblings began the forced
marches through Armenia. Through the arduous trip her siblings were
lost and are presumed dead. Kailian was wrapped in old newspapers to
be kept warm; she was given away three times but returned to her
mother to remain a survivor as they reached Yerevan, present-day
Armenia’s capital. Kailian’s mother worked for the Armenian Red Cross
and they lived with other wretched refugees in devastating conditions
until 1919 when they were sent funds by an uncle in the to travel to
America via Russia and Japan. Berj Kailian now lives in Weymouth,
Massachusetts and is perhaps the only Armenian-American woman artist
survivor of the Armenian Genocide.