NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- Nearly 60 artworks—most of which have not been exhibited in decades—reveal a lesser-known cultural landscape of Armenian art during the Soviet era, uncovering hidden perspectives of cultural autonomy within a constrained political system. Topographies of Dissent: Armenian Art from the Dodge Collection, which is on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, features more than 30 artists who captured the ideological, stylistic and aesthetic diversity of Armenian nonconformism from the 1960s to 1990.

Topographies of Dissent is the Zimmerli’s first exhibition dedicated to Armenian nonconformist art, prompting an international curatorial partnership. Zimmerli curator Julia Tulovsky, head of the museum’s Department of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union and Arts of Eurasia, collaborated with Lilit Sargsyan, one of Armenia’s leading art critics, and Armen Yesayants, an art historian and curator of the National Pavilion of the Republic of Armenia at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Based in Yerevan, Armenia, both guest curators selected works from the museum’s internationally renowned Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art.

“This is a rare opportunity to rediscover these works, some of which have only recently been researched, attributed or restored,” said Lilit Sargsyan. Armen Yesayants added, “While some were shown in Armenia and the former Soviet Union, many are on public view for the first time ever. It sheds light on an underrecognized chapter in both Armenian and Soviet art history, revealing how Armenian artists navigated ideology, memory and identity.”

Topographies of Dissent reflects the cultural atmosphere of Soviet-era Armenia, which, unlike many other republics, allowed for artistic experimentation and a distinct form of national modernism. Armenian artists historically distanced themselves from the explicitly representational and government-approved style of socialist realism. But rather than framing Armenian art under Soviet rule as a simple binary of resistance and repression, the exhibition proposes a more complex “topography,” where tradition, modernist aesthetics and quiet dissent coexisted. Artwork spans five sections that represent the development of Armenian nonconformist art over several decades: National Landscape: Land, Identity, Dream; Facets of “Formalism”; Abstraction; The 3rd Floor Group: Pop Art, Hyperrealism, and Neo-Dada; and Dystopias of the Evil Empires.

Lilit Sargsyan is one of Armenia’s leading art critics based in Yerevan. Her work focuses on the history of Armenian modern and contemporary art within the broader context of the socio-political history of the U.S.S.R. in the post-Stalin era.

Armen Yesayants is a Yerevan-based curator, art historian and cultural manager. He currently serves as Director of Exhibitions at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, where he has curated and co-organized nearly 50 exhibitions. His curatorial practice spans both Armenian and international contexts, with a focus on modern and contemporary art, post-Soviet visual culture, and the intersections of ideology, identity and memory.