Yervand Kochar (Armenian: Երվանդ Քոչար; Kocharyan) (June 27, 1899, Tiflis, Russian Empire - January 22, 1979, Yerevan, Soviet Armenia) was a prominent Soviet Armenian sculptor and an artist.
He was born in Tbilisi on June 15, 1899. He was educated at Nersisyan school (graduated in 1918), in the Arts School of the Caucasus Association Promoting Fine Arts (known as O. Schmerling School) in Tbilisi, at Moscow Second State Tree Fine Arts Studios, at P. Konchalovsky's studio. In 1921 People's Commissariat of the Georgian SSR grants Y. Kotcharian a certificate of State Higher Arts and Technical Studios Professor. In 1921 - 1922 Kochar was elected on the exhibition commission of the Union of Armenian Artists and becomes a member of the "HAYARTUN" (House of Armenian Art). In April 1922 he heads from Batum for abroad - to Constantinople, then to Venice, Rome, Florence and Paris. Kochar's works were first exhibited in Tbilisi in 1921 and the following year in the Allied-controlled Constantinople (Istanbul) and in Venice. By 1923 Kochar settled down in Paris, where his art was well-received and earned enduring recognition. In 1928 the media prints sympathizing echoes on the occasion of cases of vandalism towards two sculpture-paintings by Kochar in the exhibition at the "Salon des Independants". Those works were the first heralds of "Painting in Space". In February Dr. Alendi delivers a lecture in Sorbonne on Kochar's "new painting". Kochar's Painting in Space one-man show opens in "Van Leer" Gallery. The 15 works presented were new plastic and artistic means of expression which involved time as an additional fourth dimension. The author of the catalogue was George Valdemar. In 1929 the international exhibition, "Panorama de L`art contemporain"("Panorama of Contemporary Art") organized in the halls of the "BONAPART" Publishers, Kochar presents works of "Painting in Space". Among the participants of the exhibition were Braque, Chagall, Delone, Matisse, Picabia, Picasso, Liursa, Miro, Survage, Utrillaux , Vlamink and others. Kochar meets Leonse Rosenberg, the well-known patron and connoisseur of modern art, who becomes a fan of Kochar's art. In 1936 at the threshold of glory and the peak of his artistic fame, to the surprise of many, Kochar repatriates to the Soviet Armenia, without the least doubt that he is leaving Paris for good. Between 1941-43 Kochar was imprisoned on politically-motivated charges, but was eventually freed due to due to the interference of his friends from Nersissian School, Karo Halabian and Anastas Mikoian. Yervand Kochar continued working in Yerevan, earning recognition as an Honored Artist of Armenia in 1956, People's Artist of Armenia in 1965, State Prize recipient in 1967, Soviet Order of Red Banner in 1971 and People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1976. His most recognized works include the statues of David of Sassoun (1959) which has become the symbol of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia; of Vardan Mamikonian (1975); of Komitas (1969) in Echmiadzin. One of his masterpieces in painting is "Disasters of War". In 1963 National Museum of Modern Art Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris acquires one of Kochar's works of "Painting in the Space" (1934). Kochar died in 1979 in Yerevan. A museum dedicated to his art opened near Yerevan's Cascade in 1984. In 1999 UNESCO marked Kochar's centennial as one of "outstanding dates" in world art. In 2010 Armenia's Union of Artists opened an exhibit dedicated to Yervand Kochar's artistic legacy marking 110 years since the artist's birth.
Wife-Manik Mkrtchyan (1913-1984). Sons with Manik Mkrtchayn- Haykaz Kochar (1946) and Ruben Kochar (1953)