MARCO GRIGORIAN
By Shahen Khachatrian

AZG Armenian Daily #158
01/09/2007

Culture

Marco Grigorian was already a famous artist. He was born in Kropotkin,
Russia and in 1930 moved to Tehran with his family. In 1950 he enrolled
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and worked there for about ten
years. The artist had held exhibitions in Rome, Paris and London. The
first Italian period of his creative life included realistic pieces,
while later, the artist began working in the genre of expressionism.

This shift to expressionism was quite natural in the post-war Europe
among the artists who were mainly depicting the human tragedy,
depression and torture.

Grigorian made monumental canvases dwelling on the victims of
the Armenian Genocide and the immigrants from Van, the town of his
ancestors. The used such means of expression as deformation, mixture
of colors and ashes, which greatly emphasized the tragic content of
the canvases.

After achieving certain success in Italy, the artist returned to
Iran. Here he founded "Esthetic" gallery-studio, uniting young artists
under his roof, namely E. Ayvazian, R. Voskanian, S. Mekonian, as
well as Iranian painters. This group of artists was mainly working
in free and independent style.

In 1962 M. Grigorian settled down in New York city, where he
established the Archil Gorky Gallery that still functions. The gallery
becomes a unique art center. In the last period of his creative life,
Girgorian was working in the theme of the earth, which he considered
to be a sphere, basis and concept for higher human activities.

In early 1990ies when Armenia was proclaimed an independent state,
Grigorian brought a rich collection of unique artifacts to Yerevan and
opened "Middle East" exposition at the Charents Museum in Yerevan. A
bit later, In Garni, the artist established his second gallery-studio,
aiming to present the unknown and unique color plate of the Armenian
nature to the various artists of the world.