Martiros Saryan, Hakob Kojoyan, Mikayel Arutchyan, Tatchat Khachvankyan… A whole universe of artists was involved into the book publishing industry on the initiative of Yeghishe Charents, the head of the art department of Aypetrat.   
Public lecture “Fairy tale in the work of Martiros Saryan and Saryan's illustrations for Armenian fairy tales” organized by the library became a reason for showing samples of book design in the small Alexander Tamanyan exhibition hall. The lecturer, art critic, head of the department of Armenian art at the National Gallery Haykuhi Sahakyan spoke about the close connection of Martiros Saryan with the literary world, about the design of his books, especially for the fairy tales. 

 

Haykuhi Sahakyan spoke about the Russian collection “Armenian Tales” published by Saryan in 1930 in Moscow. Graphic images in the book are praising the nature and architecture of the Armenian world. On the pages of the book, republished in 1933, there are heroes of Saryan's fairy tales — healers and animals. Saryan also contributed to the cover and frontispiece.   
“While working on the book, he tried to concentrate on the representation of Armenia as a whole, to create a panorama that we see in his other works, for example, on the curtain created for the state theater. Saryan's natural-philosophical views found their manifestation in book illustrations as well,” notes Sahakyan.   
An exhibition dedicated to the graphic heritage of Martiros Saryan is available at the National Gallery of Armenia. Among other things, it presents unique publications from the collection of the National Library of Armenia.   
Many books from the rich collection of the National Library are also exhibited in the small Alexandr Tamanyan exhibition hall. Exhibition curators Haykuhi Sahakyan and Seda Khanjyan confirmed the exceptional value of the national exhibition. Seda Khanjyan, the daughter of the great artist Grigor Khanjyan, a specialist in book art and book design, noted that while working on the exhibition, several unknown illustrations were discovered, for example, Hakob Kojoyan’s works for Aksel Bakuts’ book “Andzrev“ and Gegham Saryan’s graphics for Hovhannes Shavarsh’s book “Mijore“. 

 

At the end of the event, Haykuhi Sahakyan donated to the National Library of Armenia the publication “Martiros Saryan”, compiled and published by the National Gallery of Armenia, as well as the trilingual catalog of the “Book and Art” exhibition. The illustrated book contains about 90 book illustrations, picturesque and graphic portraits of famous writers with informative information and quotations. The catalog also includes books from the National Library of Armenia.