Art of Bryn Athyn’s Nishan Yardumian featured at Glencairn Museum

Glencairn Museum mounts an exhibition of 20 paintings and drawings by the late Bryn Athyn artist and arts instructor Nishan Yardumian (1947-1986). A Window to the Soul: Nishan Yardumian’s Biblical Art opens Sunday, April 22, during the Museum’s annual Sacred Arts Festival and continues through Sunday, November 4, in Glencairn’s Upper Hall exhibition space.

Yardumian taught painting in Bryn Athyn for many years, at both the Academy of the New Church Secondary Schools and Bryn Athyn College. A painter as well as a teacher, he was passionate about both professions. According to Yardumian, “Painting aims at the universal with the hopes that each individual can find his identification with it. Teaching aims at the individual with the hope of developing the universal.”

Siri Hurst, Nishan Yardumian’s widow, who owns many pieces of her late husband’s work, says, “For the past five years, as I’ve taken a day each summer to archive Nishan’s remaining art work, I noticed how he was drawn to the subject of ‘heavenly appearances.’ This theme coincided with my own philosophic reflections on how appearances reveal but also conceal, and this led me to suggest to Glencairn an exhibit that could include this theme.

“Two pieces in this exhibition are favorites of mine. I love ‘Bethlehem’ because it illustrates a story we can all relate to, of an idea—something of God—that is born within us. ‘Annunciation to Shepherds’ shows movement: Nishan saw the angel as ‘appearing’ and changing us, and the drama such change can represent.

“When I modeled for Nishan, I would watch his eyes. The intensity made me feel he was probing an idea beyond the observation. He often said, ‘In the end it is not what we paint pictures of, but what we paint pictures from.’ I think the key to understanding his art is to realize from what he painted.

“Nishan was deeply spiritual, and saw the discipline of painting and drawing as analogous to the struggle to see the truth. He said, ‘Paintings don’t re-direct the wind; they realign the heart.’

“He loved to paint stories from the Bible because of what they mean in our lives. Although religious imagery wasn’t popular in the art world of his day [1970s and ’80s], his work found a receptive home at Glencairn Museum whose mission supports an appreciation for our common spiritual history.”

“Yardumian liked the idea that just as an artwork reflects and shapes the values of a home, a museum reflects and shapes the values of a community,” says Dr. Martha Gyllenhaal, a close friend of Yardumian and currently Associate Professor of Art and Art History and head of the Art Department at Bryn Athyn College. She was exhibit coordinator for Glencairn’s first solo Nishan Yardumian exhibition in 1987, a year after his death.

“So it is fitting that a number of homes have lent their cherished Biblical paintings to Glencairn Museum [for this exhibition]. Yardumian thought that attending an art exhibit is a reciprocal act between the artist and viewer: each brings their best self to the process, which results in a marvelous exchange of insights.”

Nishan Richard Yardumian was one of 13 children born to composer Richard Yardumian and his wife, Ruth Seckelman, a member of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, which Richard later joined. All of the children became involved in music or other arts, including Nishan, pianist Vera Yardumian and teacher Esther Yardumian.

Visitors are welcome to tour the exhibition Tuesday through Friday as part of Glencairn Museum’s regular 2:30pm “Highlights Tour” and on weekends 1-4:30pm (walk-ins welcome), as well as by appointment and when attending the Sacred Arts and Medieval Festivals. The exhibition is closed April 29 and May 26 for two concerts and on July 4.

While there is no charge to view A Window to the Soul, donations are accepted and access is included in tour and event admission.

Glencairn Museum is at 1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn 19009. For more information: info@GlencairnMuseum.org, 267.502.2990 or GlencairnMuseum.org/exhibitions.