Marc Balakjian (born in Rayak Lebanon, 1938, died 2017, Muswell Hill, London) was a British printmaker and artist. He is best known for his work at Studio Prints in Queen's Crescent,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where editions of artists’ prints were created. He joined the business in 1974 and went on to work with some of the most important contemporary British artists, including

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (29 April 1931 – 11 November 2024) was a German-born British painter. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of Lo ...

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

Ken Kiff __NOTOC__ Ken Kiff, (29 May 1935 – 15 February 2001) was an English figurative artist, who was born in Dagenham and trained at Hornsey School of Art 1955-61. He came to prominence in the 1980s thanks to the championship of art critic No ...

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, William Turnbull and Kim Lim. He married the founder and collaborator of Studio Prints, Dorothea Wight, in 1973. They lead the workshop in introducing a number of techniques to British printmaking, and the studio was considered "at the forefront of British Printmaking for 40 years". Balakjian was also an artist in his own right, known for his

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzo ...

s and pencil drawings which have been exhibited around the world in countless solo and group exhibitions. His works are in a number of permanent collections in the UK including those of the V&A, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

, the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

, the

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

, the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

The New Art Gallery Walsall The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery in the town of Walsall, in the West Midlands, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and additiona ...

. They are also in prominent collections in the US, Germany, France, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Ireland and Canada.

Personal life

Balakjian was born and grew up in Rayak, Lebanon. His parents were of Armenian descent, having fled to Lebanon from Turkey during the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

His father was a cobbler. After studying painting at Hammersmith College of Art from 1968 to 1971, Balajian earned a postgraduate degree in printmaking at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

from 1971 to 1973. He died of pancreatic cancer on 10 August 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balakjian, Marc 1938 births 2017 deaths 20th-century British painters