Դիտելով հեռավորությունը. կանանց դիմաքանդակները Հակոբ Գյուրջյանի արվեստում

Abstract

Abstract

The article examines the conceptual, historical, and stylistic features of female portrait sculptures by the prominent Armenian sculptor Hakob Gurdjian (1881–1948) within the context of national visual culture and European modernism. Utilizing the historical roots of ancient Hellenistic (including the Pudicitia formula), Roman, Renaissance, and 18th-century French portraiture, as well as archival items from the National Gallery of Armenia, comparative, structural, and semiotic analysis methods were applied. Analysis: The study analyzes how Gurdjian transforms the female physical body into a symbolic space, synthesizing the timeless statics of Eastern art with Rodinesque internal movement. Special attention is paid to the philosophy of the portrait sculpture as a "living death mask," the aesthetics of the French "bare-chested portrait bust," and the "cold solitude" present in his sculptures. It is demonstrated that in Gurdjian's sculptures—ranging from classical ideals to Art Deco—when looks meet external reality, the untouchable autonomy of the characters is preserved. This allows the breaking of the "fourth wall" while maintaining an ethereal internal distance and marking a transition toward active female subjectivity.