Artist of the moment…..Arthur Pinajian….

{ March 28, 2013 @ 2:16 pm } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: abstract expressionist, armenian, arshile gorky, arthur pinajian, cubism }

This artist worked his entire life in obscurity when it came to producing fine art. Pinajian was born in the year 1914. Pinajian is awesome for the fact that he is what this website is about. Exploring the different creative processes behind each medium of artistic expression. In this case we have someone who never painted for a show or to sell to someone else, in essence he was able to maintain that childlike exuberance to create without any need for gratification, he just enjoyed the process. Pinajian’s parents were lucky to survive the Armenian genocide of 1915 and left their homeland for America.

Pinajian earned a living as a commercial artist with some successful comic book series works. He was very active in the 1930s thru 1950s. His most famous comic book is Madame Fatale.

Though a self taught artist historians link Pinajian’s color palette to that of fellow Armenian artist Arhile Gorky. Gorky was an Ab-Ex painter born in 1904. Below is an example of his style.

The artist lived with his sister in Bellport, New York for most of his adult life.  An investor bought the house as an investment with the idea of flipping it. Finding the art was a shock because his request was to take all the art to the dump. He just enjoyed creating. We see glimpses of realism, cubism, and abstraction through out the artist’s lifetime. The artist shared a one story cottage with his sister, did thousands of paintings, and would store them in the garage and other locations that heat and water damaged many beyond repair. Thankfully what is left are true treasures!

In this clip a brief bio of the artist with works appearing at the end. He was much more than abstraction artist, he seemed to participate in many artistic movements over his lifetime.

Shorter version of the same story and without as many samples of Pinajian’s artwork.

Pinajian passed away in 1999 at the age of 85 years old.

A link for the artist’s website:  http://www.pinajianart.com/

The story is fascinating for the amount of return on investment. It even surpasses the Goodwill stories I have featured!

Keep walking along the artistic path!

D