| Ashot Avagyan | |
| Birth Date: | 20 May 1958 |
| Birth Place: | Sisian, Syunik, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Nationality: | Armenian |
| Education: | Yerevan Art College after P. Terlemezyan, Yerevan |
| Awards: | State Prize 2013 |
Ashot Avagyan (Armenian: Աշոտ Ավագյան; born May 20, 1958) is a modern Armenian artist who lives and works in Sisian, Armenia.
The cornerstone of Avagyan's artistic work is the cultural heritage of his homeland Sisian and Syunik. Iconography from Neolithic petroglyphs and medieval Armenian gravestones are present in Avagyan's works on canvas, while ancient tales, rituals, and their interpretations and ancient local monuments (Zorats Karer, Portakar, Ukhtasar petroglyphs) are integrated into his performances.
Ashot Avagyan was awarded the state prize in 2013 for the fresco Mashtots, located in the symposium hall of the newly built subsidiary building of the Mashtots Matenadaran.
Besides artistic work, Avagyan taught fine arts at Sisian Children's Art School after Z. Khachatryan from 1981 to 2016. From 2010 to 2018 Ashot was curating works of the megalithic site ''Zorats Karer historical-cultural reserve''.
Since 1988 he has been actively engaged in sociopolitical activities of Armenia, particularly Sisian. He was involved in local politics, elected as a member of the City Council of Elders, and has been a member of the Sisian committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation since 1990․ He participated in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the 2016 Nagorno-Karbakh conflict, and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War as a member of the Sisakan volunteer detachment.
Ashot Avagyan was born in 1958 in Sisian, Soviet Armenia to Ararat Avagyan, father, a history teacher. His mother Parandzem Voskanyan was an accountant. Ashot's interest in fine arts started at the Children's Art School of Sisian, where he attended the studios of E. Hakobjanyan, V. Stepanyan, and Z. Khachatryan.
In 1975 Avagyan entered the Yerevan Art College after P. Terlemezyan, studying in the studio of Samvel Petrosyan. From 1977 to 1979 he joined the Soviet Army and was in military service in Siberia. After graduating in 1981 he returned to his hometown and started teaching at Children's Art School until 2016.
In the frame of the Artsakh movement of 1988, Ashot Avagyan was one of the organizers of protests in Sisian together with his maternal uncle Vurg Voskanyan who later was martyred in 1993 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. After the first protests, the Karabakh Committee of Sisian was established with members including Ashot Minasyan, Masis Baghdasaryan, Artush Yesayan, and others. Avagyan's artistic development was paused as he concentrated his efforts on the war and later on in the development of the army as a coordinator of civil issues of Sisian's military unit. He fully returned to art in 1998 after his military service.
The local cultural environment and the surroundings are fundamental for Ashot Avagyan's artistic practice. The artist's fascination with historic sites especially petroglyphs started during childhood, when examining his father's professional literature on local history. However, he discovered for himself the petroglyphs of Ukhtasar during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and later on returned there a couple of times establishing an off-road path to reach them. This afterward was developed into a gravel route, turning Ukhtasar petroglyphs into one of the most visited tourist attractions of Sisian.[1]
Besides petroglyphs, their motives and the structure of the stones, artist turns to figurative carvings of medieval Armenian gravestones as a source of inspiration.Both in performances and in his fine arts artist not only attempts to create a bridge between culture of the past and the present but becomes the bridge, the intermediary for connecting the two times, and the filler for the gap between them, the catalyst. And his art not only obtains the independence from the cultural heritage, not only carries it but also turns into a way of preservation of that same cultural heritage.