Vahan Khatchatrian (Zaven)

Zaven (Khatchatrian Vahan), abstract painter Zaven's vocation as an artist, founder of the Gavart gallery, began very early, around the age of nine, in Armenia (his native country) in a picturesque region, where nature is very colorful and fiery. At the age of fifteen, Zaven entered the Higher School of Fine Arts in Yerevan, and four years later obtained the diploma of "professor of painting". Since the Soviet system only allowed academic art, a priest friend advised him to enter the monastery, the Church being separated from the State. He can thus freely exercise his talents as an abstract painter, a discipline not recognized by the system. The presentation of his thesis, centered on the understanding of sacred art, then convinced the jury, made up of professors of theology, he entered the Accademie de Theologie de Etchmiadzin (1980-1985). In 1985, having become abbot, Zaven was appointed managing director of the monastery museum and secretary of the Catholicos (the pope for the Armenians). After a doctorate on symbol and Christian relics, Zaven became Archimandrite, while continuing to paint and exhibit. He then left to study in Paris: two years at the Catholic Institute, then one year at the Beaux Arts in Paris. In charge of the Organization within the Board of Directors of the Church of Armenia in Paris, Zaven observes fraud, and protests to its leaders, who do not appreciate his attitude. Chased in France by KGB agents, mandated by his own Church! The manhunt miraculously fails. Driven from the Armenian church for disobedience and deprived of the possibility of exercising his vocation as a priest, he then devoted himself exclusively to his other passion: "artistic creation". He actively participates in numerous salons and personal exhibitions, without ever losing the hope of one day returning to his Church. All his requests in this direction have, for the moment, remained unanswered. In 2000, he therefore decided to create his own gallery: the Gavart gallery.