Online Concert to Feature an Exclusive Performance by the Komitas Quartet

WATERTOWN, MA--The Armenian Museum of America recently announced its 11th Online Concert featuring an exclusive performance by the Komitas Quartet of Yerevan. The concert will be shown online on Sunday, August 14 at 1:00 pm EST (10:00 am PST and 9:00 pm in Yerevan).

Founded in 1924, the Komitas Quartet is the oldest-established string quartet still performing today. The group is named after Komitas, who had a formidable impact on Armenian music at the turn of the 20th century.

From its early days, the Komitas Quartet was inspired by a variety of composers including Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Debussy, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev.

Arrangements of Komitas' songs are a vital part of the repertoire of the Quartet, thus giving the world a chance to listen to the rich diversity of Armenian music.

The Komitas Quartet has performed with world-famous musicians including Emil Gilels, Dmitri Shostakovich, Victor Merzhanov, and Itzhak Perlman. The Quartet has played all over the world, in countries including Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Japan, Canada, and the USA.

This concert will be recorded in Armenia exclusively for the Armenian Museum of America, and it is produced by Daniel Ayriyan. The performers are Eduard Tadevosyan (violin), Syuzi Yeritsyan (violin), Alexander Kosemyan (viola), and Anzhela Sargsyan (cello).

The Online Concert series is free thanks to a generous grant from the Dadourian Foundation. Preregistration is not required. The link will be available on the Museum’s Facebook page, YouTube Channel, and website www.ArmenianMuseum.org.

Watertown Cable Access TV Covers “On the Edge” Exhibit

The Watertown Weekly News Broadcast recently featured our new contemporary art exhibition and interviewed collector Joan Agajanian Quinn of Los Angeles. Joan explained that the “On the Edge” exhibition was proposed by the Museum’s President Michele Kolligian. The idea was to bring the community together, to enjoy the artists that contributed to the collection, and to educate the public. “This show has something for everyone,” explains Executive Director Jason Sohigian. “The collection is diverse, it is large, and it is exciting for Watertown.”

The exhibition of 125 contemporary works by artists including John Altoon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles Garabedian, Frank Gehry, and David Hockney runs through Nov. 30.

WBZ’s Jordan Rich Covers ‘On the Edge’ Exhibit

"The critics are raving about On the Edge, an art exhibit featuring Los Angeles art from the 70's through the 90's," says WBZ's Jordan Rich. Jordan has been a staple in the Boston broadcasting industry as the host of WBZ AM 1030 Radio's The Jordan Rich Show. Listen here to the "New England Weekend" program with Jordan and Armenian Museum of America Executive Director Jason Sohigian as they discuss this landmark exhibit.

Our galleries in Boston/Watertown are open Thursday thru Sunday from 12-6.

This photograph of Andy Warhol with Joan Agajanian Quinn was taken in Texas in 1975, courtesy of the Joan Quinn Archives.

Boston Globe: A Lively West Coast Collection Lands in Watertown

From left: Thomas Ammann, Joan Agajanian Quinn, and Andy Warhol, 1979. Courtesy of the Joan Quinn Archives.

WATERTOWN, MA --Collectors have nothing to declare except their sensibility. Many, perhaps most, don’t have one. Joan Agajanian Quinn definitely does. Getting a handle on it is among the pleasures offered by “On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970s-1990s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection.” The show runs through Nov. 30 at the Armenian Museum of America.

On display are 125 works with more than 75 artists represented. Some of them you’ve likely heard of: Lynda Benglis, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Helmut Newton, Andy Warhol. Others you’ve also likely heard of have a particular association with Southern California: Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Frank Gehry (a chair and “fish” lamp).

The title speaks to the Quinns’ tastes. What they collected wasn’t Old Masters or mainstream Modernists. They went in for contemporary artists, and not necessarily ones who would become established. Patrons as well as collectors, the Quinns weren’t placing bets. They were satisfying urges and unconcerned with conventions. The Quinns didn’t collect as an investment or for status. They collected things they wanted to own and live with.

Mirror Spectator: Quinn Exhibit Brings LA Cool to Armenian Museum

WATERTOWN, MA--The dual exhibits, “On the Edge: Los Angeles Art 1970s – 1990s from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection” and “Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn,” currently on display at the Armenian Museum of America, merge the two facets of this woman: muse and supporter of the cool LA art scene as well as society patron in the Armenian community. It is hard to imagine anyone else able to draw a direct line connecting Andy Warhol to the Armenian International Women’s Association. Quinn does, however, and is equally at home in both worlds.

The exhibits, which will be on display through November 30, feature remarkable works of art from some of the most notable post-modernist and Pop artists, including Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney, as well as many notable artists from Armenia, which the Quinns collected over the past six decades. Most would be right at home at a major metropolitan museum.

The woman at the center of it all, Quinn, was present for the grand opening on June 16 and took part in a private tour before the official opening reception. It was uncanny to be next to the woman who was represented in myriad forms on every wall. Many of the artists have captured the colorfulness — literally and figuratively — of this delightfully bubbly muse. In person, she appears much as she does in many of the portraits surrounding her, bright and sparkling, complete with fuchsia-tinged hair and bedecked in chunky jewelry.