Design in Center and Periphery: Three Generations of Armenian Ceramic Artists in Jerusalem

The Iconography of Marie Balian - Central Motifs in her Work

• Birds

Birds are a central theme in Early Christian art, in Armenian manuscripts, and in Islam during later periods, primarily the Ottoman Empire. In early Christianity, birds symbolize the soul of the believer. In Islam as well, birds are thought to have greater significance than mere creatures in nature as human images almost completely disappeared, and birds appear as a parable for human beings, though without any specific catalogue of types and forms. The fantastic and legendary nature of the bird's tail or fan and its way of walking through the setting are spontaneously expressed. Thus, birds, which have been part of the repertoire of visual arts in Persia and Turkey during long artistic periods, also play a significant role in Marie Balian's early works. As she developed as an artist, her use of bird images intensified, not only in her depiction of their varied and imaginary images but also in their placement within the picture. Birds have become living souls that adopted human characteristics, such as coquetry, fraternization, boastfulness, etc. Their tails serve both as body and as parable, and they become the subjects of fanciful and variegated beauty, constituting a moving element in the picture that breaks up static situations with its colorful lines.

Marie Balian continues to use the patterns of the sixth century Armenian mosaics throughout her work. She plays with the images of vine scrolls and birds, sometimes renouncing one form or another and sometimes distinguishing specific elements. Birds perching in grapevines also appear in one of her huge jugs from the mid-1990s. The work that she appears to favour in particular is a pair of peacocks standing with heraldic posture over an amphora. While in various mosaics these peacocks appeared far away from each other, they have been transformed by Marie Balian into a new image. Their large tail fans and heads face outward from the center of the picture rather than inward, and their fans appear to be made of lace. This composition was created when Marc Chagall visited Marie's studio in the 1970s together with Jerusalem's mayor, Teddy Kollek. Chagall praised the work, which since then has been known as the 'Chagall Peacocks' and has become a central image of the workshop.

Furthermore, birds in Marie Balian's work appear either as individual entities or in pairs on plates. On the panels, they often appear in flocks. Her work demonstrates an infinite variety of birds, atop one another or next to each other. Moreover, there are numerous examples of individual birds. In some pictures, the bird appears as a strange creature standing on two long, erect legs, with its wings resembling a colorful map. Often, the body of the bird resembles a pinecone, with marvelous square-shaped feathers and head combs.

• Deer and Gazelles

Animals from the deer family have appeared in Marie Balian's work from the beginning, as they were part of the vocabulary of forms used in the Karakashian-Balian workshop. Gazelles and young deer, ancient Christian symbols, gained new momentum in Marie Balian's work (fig.11). Previously, animals were presented as completely static creatures placed on a background of flowers and leaves. In Marie Balian's work, these animals transmit--whether she places them in groups or as individuals--movement and action.

• Fish and their Significance

Fish are a traditional theme in ancient Christianity, symbolizing the souls of the believers who were 'fished out' by the Disciples of Christ. In the East, fish were symbols of fertility. Fish were part of the repertoire of forms used in the Karakashian-Balian workshop. They continue to appear frequently in the vessels created by Marie Balian, usually presented on a light blue background and represented as small creatures. In her most recent work, 'The Journey', the fish are given new dimensions and individual forms and colors.

• Human Images

Balian's early work features Biblical figures that are usually painted on individual tile panels. The most prevalent characters are Noah in the ark, Jonah and the whale, and St. George and the dragon. It seems to me that in these scenes, the fantastic elements (for example, the ark, the large whale, and the dragon) are prominent. These elements emphasize the mythological aspect of the story rather than the religious. From the stories of King Arthur, Marie also adopted the mounted knight fighting the lion. The knight is depicted as a legendary rider, sometimes dressed in outlandish eastern garb. This legendary horseman is an image that appears in traditional Persian tile painting. In discussing this image, however, Marie Balian mentioned the stories of King Arthur and explained that she was familiar with the stories of the knights and the Holy Grail from her schooldays in Lyon. Her rider was created from her own mythology and looks like a flying rider.

• Trees

Since the 1980s, specific trees - cypress, grape, almond, palm - have been playing an increasingly important role in Marie Balian's work as isolated and independent charged images. Traditionally they appear primarily on tile paintings. In ancient Christianity and Islam, individual solitary trees represent landscape and nature or are depicted instead of broad landscapes to symbolize eternal life.

The age-old image of the palm tree was used regularly in early Christianity, appearing in different versions through the Middle Ages in the mosaics at Ravenna (sixth century CE), Rome (ninth - twelfth centuries), Monreale and Palermo in Sicily (twelfth century), and many other places as well. The palm tree has also become a common image for life in Israel. Marie Balian created her own unique palm tree, which is part of her personal vocabulary of forms.

• Flowers

In addition to the traditional colorful images of flowers, Marie Balian developed images of wildflowers, such as thistles, anemones and ears of corn, each with erect boughs. These images are drawn using contour lines that are thicker and bolder than those used to draw carnations, hyacinth and other flowers from the Iznik tradition.

The flower images reveal an ongoing inventive ability and openness to varying languages of forms. Throughout her career, Marie Balian designed vessels featuring abstract floral and arabesque shapes, produced using limited color spectra, such as blue and black, and often only blues and greens. These works, on the one hand, retain their allegiance to the traditions of Iznik-Kütahya. On the other hand, they reveal the depth of expression in freeform lines and the rhythms and design conceptions of a harmonious ornamental world. This artistic development can be traced. In a plate painted in the 1970s, Marie Balian constructed a limited spectrum of colors using blues and blacks and ornamental shapes created through circular and cyclical motions weaving in and out. In the blue inflorescence of plate (fig.12) and vase (fig.13), she intensifies the traditional vocabulary of forms, imparting the power of renewed growth.

• The Signature's Meaning

Marie Balian's signature has developed from a general house of Balian signature to her own individual signature in Armenian and in English.