Marcos Grigorian, also known as Marco Grigorian ( hy, Մարկոս Գրիգորեան; fa, مارکو گريگوريان; December 5, 1925 – August 27, 2007) was an

Iranian-Armenian Iranian-Armenians ( hy, իրանահայեր ''iranahayer''), also known as Persian-Armenians ( hy, պարսկահայեր ''parskahayer''), are Iranians of Armenian ethnicity who may speak Armenian as their first language. Estimates of th ...

and American artist and gallery owner, and he was a pioneer of Iranian modern art.

Early life and education

Grigorian was born in

Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai Kropotkin (russian: Кропо́ткин) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kuban River. History It was founded as Romanovsky Khutor in the late 18th century, and was renamed Kropotkin in honor of the outstan ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, to an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

family from Kars who had fled that city to escape massacres when it was captured by Turkey in 1920. In 1930, the family moved from Kropotkin to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, living first in the city of

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

, and then in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. The Apadana gallery in Tehran opened in 1949, and began showing his work. After finishing his primary education in Iran, in 1950 he studied at the

Accademia di Belle Arti This is a list of the tertiary-level schools or academies of fine art in Italy that are recognised by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of higher education. Accademie di Belle Arti The offic ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Graduating from there in 1954, he returned to Iran, opened the Galerie Esthétique, an important commercial gallery in

. In 1958, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, he organized the first Tehran Biennial. Grigorian was also an influential teacher at the Fine Arts Academy, where he disseminated his enthusiasm for local popular culture, including coffee-house paintings, a type of folk art named after the locations in which they were often displayed. In the 1950s he acted in a few Iranian films, under the name "Marc Gregory".

Career

He lived in the 1960s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

; first moving in 1962 to New York City, and then moved to Minneapolis to work at Minnetonka Center for the Arts. In Minneapolis he started Universal Galleries which became an influential center for Iranian art in Minneapolis, and it existed at the same time along with a quickly growing Modern Iranian art collection that could be found at Abby Weed Grey's home. In 1975, Grey donated her collection to form New York University's art museum, the

Grey Art Gallery The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...

. In 1975, Grigorian helped organize the ''Group of Free Painters and Sculptors'' () in Tehran and was a founder member. Other founding artists included Gholamhossein Nami, Massoud Arabshahi,

Morteza Momayez Morteza Momayez ( fa, مرتضی ممیز; August 26, 1936 – October 25, 2005) was an Iranian graphic designer. He was one of the founders of Iranian Graphic Design Society (IGDS) and held a membership to Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) ...

, Mir Abdolrez Daryabeigi, and Faramarz Pilaram. His series, ''Earthworks'', was on canvas and it used a mixture of clay and straw called "kahgel", which is commonly found as a building material in villages in Iran. He exhibited his clay and straw works in Yerevan in 1991. Grigorian was also an early artist with land art in Iran. Grigorian eventually moved to

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

(which was then still a republic of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

). In 1989, he traveled to Russia at the invitation of the Union of Russian Artists, visiting

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He later donated 5,000 of his artworks to the government of Armenia. In 1993, he founded the "Museum of the Middle East" in Yerevan with 2,600 works on display, with most of them coming from his own collection. His work is included in various museum collections, including at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MOMA) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

;

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City;

Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, ( Persian: موزه هنرهای معاصر تهران), also known as TMoCA, is among the largest art museums in Tehran and Iran. It has collections of more than 3,000 items that include 19th and 20th centur ...

; Museum of Contemporary Art in Kerman; the Near East Art Museum in

; and the National Gallery of Armenia.

Death

On 4 August 2007, Grigorian was assaulted and was beaten in the head by two masked robbers who had broken into his Yerevan home. It was speculated that the robbers believed, erroneously, that there was a large sum of money in the house, proceeds from the sale of Grigorian's summer residence in

Garni Garni ( hy, Գառնի), is a major village in the Kotayk Province of Armenia. It is known for the nearby classical temple. As of the 2011 census, the population of the village is 6,910. History The settlement has an ancient history, and is b ...

. After an anonymous phone call to police, Grigorian was discovered injured and taken to hospital. He died of a suspected heart attack on 27 August 2007, a day after leaving the hospital.

Personal life

Marcos was married in 1955 to Flora Adamian, but the marriage ended in divorce by 1960. Marcos and Flora's daughter,

Sabrina Grigorian Sabrina Grigorian ( hy, Սաբրինա Մարկոսի Գրիգորյան; 1956–1986) was an Italian-born Armenian actress. Life and career Sabrina Grigorian was born in Rome, Italy, on July 28, 1956, to artist Marcos Grigorian and Flora Adami ...

(1956–1986), was an actress.

References

External links