“I consider myself to be an independent director who tries to tell stories outside of typical movie theaters,” Antoine Wagner said once. He is a European-American visual artist and the great-grandson of composer Richard Wagner. Wagner has been called back to Armenia for the second time, this time to present a new exhibition in the National Gallery of Armenia.
Antoine Wagner was captivated by Vardges Sureniants’ painting “Shamiram at the Corpse of Ara the Beautiful” and wanted to retell that story with a new conclusion. He wants to tell the myth of Ara the Beautiful as the story of someone in the present speaking of their past. So, Wagner is paying his respects to the rich history of Armenia in a unique way. The Ara the Beautiful-Shamiram-Sureniants-Antoine Wagner chain is all tied to the force of Wagner’s ancestor, Richard Wagner, since his influence has spread from composing to the applied arts and literature.
Gohar Hakobyan
