ESTONIA” (newspaper), July 8th, 1997
Yesterday, an exhibition of Rafael Arutyunyan’s sculptures was opened in the Sakala Centre, dedicated to the approaching 60th jubilee of the sculptor.
Born in Baku, Rafael Arutyunyan has been living in Estonia since 1958. Here, he graduated from the State Institute of Fine Arts, and has participated in exhibitions.
Three years ago, he completely vanished, as it were, from the field of vision of the arts crowd. He shut himself in his studio and worked intensively, preparing his jubilee exhibition.
At the exhibition there are over a hundred sculptures created in different time periods and from different materials.
– My favourite material is the karrarian marble from Italy, the sculptor tells us. – But it is very expensive. That is why I work with such materials that are readily available at a certain time. And every material has unique plasticity…
Arutyunyan’s latest works, made mostly from wood, reveal to us new traits of his creative work. These works of art have an acute social agenda, showing pain along with irony; letting our tragic time pass through him, the artist hurries to share his world view and his anxiety with the spectator.
The sculptor’s son, entrepreneur Areg Arutyunyan, helped to organise the exhibition.