Kotyants Gevork Vartanovich

Kotyants Gevork Vartanovich was born on November 12, 1909 in the village of Shusha in Armenia in the family of a jeweler. In 1909, the family moved to the North Caucasus to Pyatigorsk. In 1927-1929, Kotyants studied in a private studio in Pyatigorsk, independently studied the work of outstanding masters of the past from books and reproductions, and painted from life. In 1929 he became a member of the Pyatigorsk branch of the Academy of Arts. In 1930, he first participated in an art exhibition in Pyatigorsk, then in the North Caucasus cities of Essentuki, Kislovodsk, and Mineralnye Vody. In 1931-1932 Kotyants worked as an artist at the Museum of the Revolution in Pyatigorsk, trying himself in the genre of historical-revolutionary painting. Several of his works were acquired by the museum. In 1933 he was sent to study in Leningrad. In 1934-1935, Kotyants studied at the Higher Courses for Advanced Training of Artists with Pavel Naumov, Alexander Karev, and Rudolf Frenz. During these same years, the artist discovered the art of the French Impressionists, which largely changed the direction of his own creative searches. After completing the courses, Kotyants worked at the Leningrad City Committee of Artists. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Kotyants served in the Red Army on the Leningrad Front. After returning to Leningrad in 1945-1946, he taught drawing and painting at the Tauride Art and Pedagogical School, restoring creative skills lost during the war years. It was during this period that the artist became interested in the expressive possibilities of color. He works hard in search of his own theme and his own means of expression, tries himself in different genres: portrait, still life, landscape, subject composition. In 1979 in Leningrad and in 1985 in Moscow, personal exhibitions of the artist’s works were held. In the 1990s, Kotyants' works successfully participated in exhibitions and auctions of Russian painting in Italy, England, France, and Germany, where his work gained its connoisseurs. Gevork Vartanovich Kotyants died on August 28, 1996 in St. Petersburg at the eighty-seventh year of his life. His works are in art museums and numerous private collections in Russia, as well as in France, Italy, the USA and other countries.