Monday, December 9, 2013

Petros Konturajian (1905-56)

Townscape

Petros Konturajian was an Armenian Painter who gained recognition as an illustrator and artist of successful painter of the city under the influence of Cubism.


Source
Art Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan , Hayastani Petakan Patkerasrah, Martin Mikaelian, 1984, 159 pages

Leon Tutundjian (1905-1968)

Leon Tutundjian was an Artist, of Armenian origins, moved from Athens to Paris in 1924, where he initially frequented the Academic Rossi to then open up to Cubism. In 1926 he visited a Picasso exhibition at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery. He was struck by the artist's collages, but also by a painting with glass bead inserts.

Untitled, 1929

 Leon Tutundjian's collages reveal the Cubist heritage in the play of quadrangular and curved forms, but these geometric shapes are then overlapped with heterogeneous elements such as engravings, anatomical drawings, fragments of texts and portraits of famous personalities.



Sources

Sculpture 1900-1945: After Rodin by Penelope Curtis
Collage/collages: from cubism to new dada by Cristina Garbagna

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Ashod Zorian ( 1905-1971 )


Portrait of Hmayak Shems

Ashod Zorian  was an famous Egyptian - Armenian Painter, Draughtsman and Art Teacher.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Zareh Mutafian (1907-1980)

Etchmiadzin

The Armenian painter Zareh Mutafian escaped in 1915 and took refuge in 1917 at the American orphanage run by the Near East Relief. He studied at the Mekhitarist College in Milan and the Murad Rafayelyan school in Venice before entering the famous Academy of Modern Arts at Milan. He held personal exhibitions in Zurich and Basel (1934). He won first prize in a portrait exhibition in Zurich.


Sources
Armenia : Vrej Nersessian - Clio Press, 1993 - History - 304 pages
Zareh Mutafian : 1907-1980 : Claude Mutafian, 1990

Friday, December 6, 2013

John Altoon (1924—1967)

  John Altoon was American painter of Armenian descent, was born in Los Angeles to working-class Armenian parents.He was Important figure of 1950-60s Los Angeles art.


 BEETHOVEN: SONATA NO: 30 AND 32; Victor Schiøler Piano, Capitol P 18046. Even the "low-brows" will be drawn to this interesting study of Beethoven's face. Cover designed by John Altoon.




Source
Billboard 27 Apr 1957



Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Georgy Yakulov (1884-1928)

Georgy Bogdanovich was Armenian artist, stage designer and former member of group Blue Rose. He was born in Tiflis and  studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1900–02). First exhibited in 1906 ("Association of Moscow Artists"); prior to 1917 took part in the exhibitions of ihe "World of Arts" group, and also in exhibitions in Vienna and Berlin. Rose to prominence as a stage designer after the Revolution.

Georgy Yakulov, set design for Mayakovsky's Mystery Bouffe (1920), which became the set design for Rienzi (1923

 Painted the sets for many of the productions in the Moscow Kamerny Theatre, the Habima Theatre Studio, for V/agner's opera Rienzi. etc. One ot his last works was the designing of the designing of the sets for the production of Prokofiev's ballet Le Pas d'acier, by Dia- ghilev and later on the stage of the Grand Opera in Paris.


Sources
The George Riabov collection of Russian art, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences
Wagner and Russia By Rosamund Bartlett

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Jak Ihmalyan (1922-1978)



Jak Ihmalyan was a Armenian painter he was forced to leave Turkey in 1940 and continued to paint in Moscow.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Garo Antreasian ( b.1922 )

Spanish peak

Garo Antreasian, an Indianapolis native of Armenian descent, who set up one of the nation's first fine-art lithography presses at Herron. He also executed a number of murals, including a 750,000-piece mosaic mural in the lobby of the State Office Building. He later became director of the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in New Mexico.

Source
The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, David J. Bodenhamer,Robert G. Barrows

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Paul Sarkisian (b. 1928)

Paul Sarkisian presented a series of acrylic-on-paper, trompe l'oeil studies of envelopes, paper bags, and newspapers arranged in imitation of collage compositions. This tricky effect, after the initial shock of realization, quickly becomes repetitious and boring.

An Untitled

In these large painting, the Artist meticulously paints newspapers envelopes, strips of cardboard, colorful scraps of paper, and assembles them against a background of intense color.Apparently elements of collage they reveal themselves on closer investigation to be integral parts of the painted surface.


Source
Texas Monthly, Ağu 1977
New York Magazine, 20 Sep 1982

Arman Manookian (1904-1931)

Arman Tateos Manookian (1904-1931) was an Armenian born Painter who gained recognition as an illustrator and artist of Hawaiian scenes. Manookian, the eldest of three children, was born on May 15, 1904 in Constantinople (Istanbul) , the troubled heart of the collapsed former Ottoman Empire. His given name, which he used until joining the U.S. Marine Corps was Tateos. Manookian came from a family of Armenian Apostolic Christians, and his father, Arshag, was a printer and the publisher of an Armenian newspaper.

Hawaiians

Arman Manookian received his art education at the Art Students League in New York and the Rhode Island School of Design. While serving in the U.S. Marine Corps he supplied illustrations for “Leatherneck” and then later for “Paradise of the Pacific.His paintings are rare and highly valued. The Bishop Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts are among the public collections holding works by Arman Manookian.


Sources
My Son-My Sun: Chants Ann, Obama's Mother , Sylva Portoian - 2011
Finding paradise: island art in private collections

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Edward Avedisian (1936–2007)

Edward Avedisian was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1936. He studied art at the Boston Museum School. He was artist-in-residence at The University of Kansas in 1969, and taught this year at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since 1958 he has had ten one- man shows in New York City ( He has exhibited in one-man shows at the Hansa Gallery, New York. )

Kool Aid

One of two Avedisians in the collection. Avedisian has been exhibiting abstract painting in New York since 1959, soon after he moved here from Boston. The striking paint quality, original color sense, and sheer make this one of the outstanding works by an artist of his generation to enter the collection.Avedisian's community of interest with postwar European abstraction stands as a challenge to the narrowness of much recent American taste


Sources
Highlights of the Art Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art., 1969
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965-1975, Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)

Ludwig Mactarian (1908-1955)

Ludwig Mactarian was born in New York on January 1, 1908. He was an ethnic Armenian.Ludwig Mactarian was employed on the Artist Project of the WPA. As a serviceman, he was assigned to an engineer unit as an artist-correspondent. His paintings and sculptures may be found in several federal buildings.

Painting of Monte Altuzzo Area
Painting of Monte Altuzzo from the slope in front of Paretaio Farmhouse. Painting by Sgt. Ludwig Mactarian, combat artist of the Fifth Army.


Sources
Blacks in the United States Army: Portraits Through History, Martha S. Putney
Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt, 8. part,1. volume, Author: Charles Brown MacDonald,Sidney T. Mathews

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Charles Garabed Atamian ( 1872-1947)

He completed his early education at the Mkhitaryan Armenian School in Pera, Istanbul. After studying at the Murad Rafaelian School in Venice and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, between 1894 and 1896 Garabed Şarl Atamian (1872−1947) became one of the leading painters of imperial portraits with florid baroque frames set against palatial landscapes produced on the wares of the Imperial Porcelain Factory at Yıldız. However, unfavorable political conditions led him to emigrate to Paris the following year.



Sources
Signaturenlexikon / Dictionary of Signatures, Paul Pfisterer - 2012
Monogrammlexikon 1: Internationales Verzeichnis der Monogramme, Franz Goldstein, Ruth Kähler, Hermann Kähler - 1999
Armenian Painters in the Ottoman Empire, Garo Kurkman

Monday, February 11, 2013

Charles Mazoujian ( 1918-? )

Charles Mazoujian was the creator of a cartoon strip called "Lady Luck." .Also, He was a member of a Coast Artillery battery, a railroad unit known in the Army as the "Iron Horse" boys, stationed on the U. S. East Coast.
Take Cover
 Take Cover is Private Charles Mazoujian's exciting sketch of soldiers unloading from a truck convoy while being strafed by a swarm of low-flying enemy planes. Artist Mazoujian says he memorized the scenes on this page from actual maneuvers in which he and his battery participated.

Taking A Break
Taking A Break, says the artist, shows "boys just returned from a 10-mile march brooding over the fact that blistered feet caused them to break a heavy date.

Depress!
"Depress!" shows a gun crew loading a 12-in. mortar and maneuvering it into firing position on a mobile railway mount. 


Source
LIFE - 9 Feb 1942

Arshak Fetvadjian ( 1866-1947 )

Arshak Fetvadjian was another great painter who made the transfer to canvas of Armenian archeological objects his specialty; and among his many paintings on the subject he gave an important place to Ani. His work brought Ani and the other architectural gems of Armenia to the attention of the civilized world.

Watercolor on Paper

Following the creation of the Democratic Republic of Armenia in 1918, the members of the country's Finance Ministry commissioned Fetvadjian to draw up the new currency (to replace the Russian ruble) and stamps for the nascent state.

A bird-like animal motif, taken from an impost block on the east facade of the Tigran Honents church






London issue "Londonski": This issue started to circulate at the beginning of 1920. (Other sources state that these bank notes entered into circulation in February /March 1921.) Bank notes were created by painter Arshak Abrahmi Fetvadjian and printed by Waterlow & sons Limited in London.




Sources
Armenia the cradle of Gothic architecture, Armenian National Council of America.
Transcaucasian Banknotes, by Arutiun Airapetian,Marcelo Gryckiewicz
The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versailles to London, 1919-1920, Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982).

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Nikoghayos ( 17th Century )


The Descent of the Holv Spirit at Pentecost, from the Gospels painted by the artist Nikoghayos, Crimea, 1658. The British Library, ms. Or. 13895, f. 13a.
 
The scribe and artist of this manuscript is Nikoghayos, calling himself dsaghkarar or melanawor. He was the principal scribe of the Crimean school, and active from the 1640s up to his death in 1693.He worked mainly in the scriptorium attached to the Church of St Sargis at Theodosia (Kaffa), and in Surkhat. Between the years 1647 and 1693 he copied and illuminated over 34 manuscripts.


Sources
The Bible in the Armenian Tradition - 64. Page
Treasures from the Ark: 1700 years of Armenian Christian art - 189. Page