Vasken Kalayjian’s “Windows on the Sacred” series: A spiritual treasure trove by Zoltan Hegyes

Vasken Kalayjian is a painter who has burst on the scene so quickly that one must constantly reevaluate his contribution in order to keep up with his seemingly unlimited development. Since his first solo exhibition a few short monthes ago, it has come to light that he will soon be the subject of a video portrait, and now his featured in a small gem of a solo show at Montserrat Gallery. 584 Broadway, from March 11 through 29.

The present exhibition offers a closer look at some of Kalayjian’s most recent paintings, “The Window on the Sacred Series,” in which he integrates his spiritual practice into his art in a particularly satisfying matter. Suffice it to say that Kalayjian is no mere New Age dabbler in meditation. He has made many pilgrimages to monasteries and has long been a serious practitioner of Zen Buddhism. He has also made a study of not only Japanese calligraphy, but Armenian and Arabic brush work as well, and these languages–or at least gestures derived from them–have become important elements of his art. In this particular series, he also introduces an element of assemblage, creating literal windows at the center of the composition, which interrupt the painterly flow to create a profound sense of formal stasis.

In order to find another painter who has consistently shown such a strong spiritual commitment, one must go back to Mark Rothko. Like Rothko, Kalayjian creates paintings that draw one close, even on an aggressive scale. The painting is large but the feeling is intimate. He does not beat one over the head with painterly pyrotchnics; rather, he employs the brush to mesmerize and finally seduce the viewer in a slow dance. The melody, in the case of the “Windows on the Sacred” series, is supplied by the artist’s chromatic subtlety. Each painting in the series has its own unique color scheme. In the first painting, for example, red dominates, while the second gives equal stature to blue, although red is still a prominent element. The third painting is saturated with a vibrant blue/green hue, while the fourth combines blue with yellow in a particularly dazzling manner. The subtle coloristic differences make all the difference in the world, since the entire series shares an almost identical compostional format. The cumulative effect of the “Windows on the Sacred” series is to induce a state similar to meditation in the viewer. The longer one looks at these paintings, the closer one feels to a certain kind of knowledge. The winow-like recessions built into the surface of each of the paintigs truly serves as a porthole in ordinary reality, which is symbolized by the surrounding gestural strokes, evoking a sense of nature’s growth and its attendant turmoil. Only at the center can one discover stillness and peace. And only Vasken Kalayjian, one of the more formidable painters to come along in quite some time, can make it look effortless.