Painting

While the other branches of art flourished during the 20th century, the fine arts were developing as well.  Due to the efforts of G. Brutyans, the first art exhibition was organized in the city in 1913. In 1916, the first artist’s union was established.  Then in 1921, the first art school was opened in Alexandrapol along with the first painting school of the southern Caucasus. Due to S. Merkurov and V. Sherishev, the first samples of sculpture and the decorative art were introduced to the city.  After the patriotic war with the efforts of M. Avetisyan, H. Minasyan, A. Melkonyan and others, decorative sculpting and monumental landscape painting started to evolve.

In 1945, the Leninakan Department of Artist’s union was established, and in 1981 the branch of Armenia’s gallery was opened in Leninakan.