Haroutiun Galentz: The Form of Colour

"Through paintings, archival documents, correspondence, and memoirs, the book situates Galentz as a cosmopolitan modernist whose work demands to be read across borders rather than within national canons. Haroutiun Galentz occupies a difficult place in 20th-century art history. A survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Galentz rebuilt his life and practice in Beirut, where he emerged as a key figure in the formation of modern painting during the interwar and immediate postwar years."

"Between 1920 and 1946, he was deeply embedded in the city's artistic and intellectual circles, participating in a cultural milieu that was at once cosmopolitan and politically fragile. His contribution to the Lebanese Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair marks an early moment in the international visibility of Lebanese modernism - one that complicates later narratives that situate its emergence after the 1950s."

"Galentz's postwar relocation to the Soviet Union opened a second, no less complex, phase of his career. In this new ideological environment, his painting retained a luminous, introspective quality that sat uneasily within official aesthetic frameworks. His first solo exhibition in 1962 - welcomed by critics and writers such as Ilya Ehrenburg and Alexander Gitovich."

Haroutiun Galentz: The Form of Colour is the first English-language monograph examining the 20th-century modernist painter whose work has resisted traditional categorization. Edited by Vartan Karapetian and Marie Tomb, the publication assembles works from major collections across Europe, Asia, and North America, including paintings, archival documents, correspondence, and memoirs. Galentz, an Armenian Genocide survivor, rebuilt his artistic practice in Beirut during the interwar and postwar periods, becoming instrumental in modern painting's formation. His 1939 Lebanese Pavilion contribution to the New York World's Fair marked early international visibility for Lebanese modernism. Following postwar relocation to the Soviet Union, Galentz's luminous, introspective painting style remained distinctive within official aesthetic frameworks, gaining critical recognition from prominent writers.

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