YHU LECTURER LILIT AMIRJANYAN ON THE INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM OF WOMEN ICONOGRAPHERS
Lilit Amirjanyan, lecturer at Haybusak University of Yerevan, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, has presented Armenian iconography on an online platform to the Launch of “Women’s Iconography in the Twenty-First Century” – a new digital archive of Lancaster University’s Digital Collections organized by the University’s Library.
This archive is part of the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)-funded Impact Acceleration Project, Contemporary Women Icons, led by Dr Azelina Flint (Associate Researcher) and Dr Brian Baker (Senior Lecturer), of ELCW. The Archive is the first of its kind and digitally preserves and represents the works of totally twenty four women iconographers from across the world, including Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Latvia, Lebanon, Greece, Finland, Mexico, Russia, the USA, the Ukraine, as well as the UK. For the first time the Archive internationally presents lectures, reports, demonstrations of icons, and the Launch event is dedicated to highlighting and researching the works of iconographers.
The project leader, Dr. Azelina Flint mentioned in her public lecture, that the aim of the of the program, the first international women’s iconography conference and the online Launch event is to raise the awareness of the accomplishments of women iconographers in Orthodox iconography around the world. The program Contemporary Women Icons explores how women from a range of denominational, cultural and ethnic backgrounds make a space for themselves in this ancient tradition.
Doctor Azelina Flint, while representing among the icon painters from six countries, participating in the international event, Lilit Amirjanyan as a well-known and respective artist in Armenia, for whose significant contribution to the cultural sphere the Ministry of Culture of Armenia’s Republic awarded a “Certificate of Appreciation”, noted that Lilit Amirjanyan is the first artist, who after the end of Armenyan medieval miniature art (XIX century) and a century-long break created hand written, illustrated three Sacred books-Gospels in XX-XXI centuries (1995-2008), continuing the Armenian national Miniature and Iconographic traditions.
L. Amirjanyan, whose twenty-four icons are displayed in the “Traditional” section of the Lancaster University Archive, made a speech and presentation on the theme “Icons as Testimonies of Saints”. While highlighting the role and significance of icons in the life of Christians and emphasizing, that the sacred images are not just “Windows to Eternity”, but also testimonies of Saints, their lives, path, self-sacrificing love and devotion to Christ and to the Christian faith, the artist spoke about the aesthetic requirements for an icon painter and the three main stages of a successful creative process.
We should also add that Dr. L. Amirjanyan, except her work in the field of icon painting, is also engaged in scientific research, is the author of a monograph, 25 scientific articles published in Rome, Ukraine, Armenia. Her PhD thesis on “The Methodology and Techniques of Teaching Armenian Miniature Art” was published by Lambert Academic Publishing House in Germany in 2024.
