​Contemporary South African Art

 Article credits to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jansem

Artist own website: http://www.jansem.net



Hovhannes Semerdjian known as Jean Jansem or Jean Semerjian is a famous French-Armenian painter, born in 1920 in Bursa, Turkey.[1] He went to France in 1931 where he studied in the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. Jansem's artworks are internationally known, and are part of museum collections throughout France and the United States.

The president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan awarded Jansem a medal of honor for his “reinforcement of Armenian-French cultural ties.”
[edit]Biography

His childhood was spent in Thessaloniki, Greece,[2] and he arrived in France when he was 11 and that is when he begin to paint. Early paintings by Jansem were mainly to national issues. In 1973 he visited Armenia for the first time. In 2001, 34 of his paintings were given to the Museum of the Armenian Genocide.
In Japan, two museums were built to honor Jansems work, located in Tokyo Ginza and Nagano Prefecture.
The act of painting reveals who we are. We are betrayed by what we love. -Jansem
On March 10, 2010 during a visit to France, The president of Armenia awarded Jansem a medal of honour saying the following, "Our nation is proud of you and values highly your art. While living outside Armenia, you have made our country more recognizable, extending our nation's good name all over the world,"