The abstract art appeared in Armenia in the period of the Soviet totalitarianism, when any type of western modernism was considered as a treason. Among Armenian modernists of 1960-1970 ( Seyran Khatlamadjyan, Henry Elibekyan, Ruben Adalyan, Raffi Adalyan, Eduard Kharazyan, Arkadi Baghdasaryan, Vigen Tadevosyan ) there were people who were coming from Armenian traditional decorativizm, and some were trying to remain faithful to the clean abstract aesthetics by taking lessons from the classical avant-guard inheritance. In 1980, when the Soviet Empire was on the verge of collapsing, a new generation of Armenian avant-gardists appeared ( Qiqi, Armen Hadjyan, Martin Petrosyan, Vardan Tovmasyan, and so on ) who severed relationships both between national traditions and Armenian Soviet modernism. Therefore the abstract art "appeared" which was a totally different world. It soon spread all over Armenia and included numerous artists' names.