In Forum
Feb 18 2018
Famous North Dakota artist was known by two different names
By Curtis Eriksmoen / Special to The Forum Today at 9:17 a.m.
It is very possible that someone has two valuable, signed works of art hanging on their walls that were done by an artist from North Dakota. One is a photograph and the other one is either an etching or a water color. What makes this interesting is that the two signatures are different. Levon West used his own name when he signed his etchings and water colors and used the name Ivan Dmitri when he signed his photographs.
West first gained widespread recognition May 29, 1927, when his etching of Charles Lindbergh's airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, appeared on the front page of The New York Times. The next day, West was contacted by New York's Kennedy Galleries inquiring about his work, which they soon started exhibiting, and he became well-known among art enthusiasts within a short period of time. Not only was West a talented etcher, but he was also a master artist with watercolors. However, West, or should I say Dmitri, is most famous for his photographs.
Levon Fairchild Assadoorian was born on Feb. 3, 1900, in Centerville, S.D., to Avedis and Henrietta (West) Assadoorian. Avedis immigrated from the Armenian region of Turkey in 1890 to study theology at Oberlin College in Ohio, and he planned to return home to Turkey after he became an ordained minister. However, at the time of his ordination, he was encouraged by his family to stay in the U.S. because of safety issues. Between 1894 and 1896, Turkish military officials, soldiers and ordinary men sacked Armenian villages and cities and massacred their citizens. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were murdered. Assadoorian heeded his family's advice and accepted a pastoral position in Centerville.
In 1892, Assadoorian married Henrietta West, an active member of the Congregational Church. Levon appears to have inherited much of his artistic ability from his mother because one of her relatives was Benjamin West, known as "the first American artist to gain an international reputation."
In 1914, Assadoorian accepted the pastoral calling of the Congregational Church in Glen Ullin, N.D. Levon excelled in high school and graduated in 1918 as valedictorian, which is remarkable considering what must have preoccupied his mind much the time. In 1914, Turkey entered WW I on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1915, Turkey's Muslim authorities declared jihad, or holy war, against all Christians except their allies. The military leaders began to argue that the Armenians (who were largely Christian) were traitors. About 2 million Armenians lived in Turkey in 1914, and when the genocide was over in the early 1920s, some 1.5 million of Turkey's Armenians were dead. Among them were Levon's grandfather and four of his aunts.
Following graduation in 1918, Levon and his oldest brother decided to enlist in the military. However, they did not want to do so under the Armenian name of Assadoorian, so the entire family decided to change their name to West. When the family moved to Harvey later that year, Levon went to the recruiting center in Fessenden and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. On Nov. 18, he was summoned to report to the navy recruitment office in Minneapolis. However, the war was essentially over because Germany had agreed to stop fighting when they signed the Armistice of Compiègne one week earlier, and Levon was discharged on Dec. 20.
In 1920, Levon West enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business and economics. However, his primary passion was art, and he served as president of Pi Alpha, the art honorary society at the university.
According to a 2005 Forum story by Andrea Halgrimson, West established a studio in Minneapolis after graduating in 1924. At his studio, he met a book salesman from New York who showed him a copy of Masters of Etching, and that sparked his fascination with the (etching) process.
In etching, the artist creates a design in reverse on a zinc or copper plate that is covered with an emulsion/grease. After the design is drawn, the plate is placed in a diluted bath of nitric acid. The remaining emulsion is then removed and the artist applies ink to the plate. Next, a moistened piece of paper is laid upon the plate and the two are literally pressed together using an etching press. The paper is then removed, and this becomes the artist's proof. It was through his etchings that West originally gained a national reputation. We will continue our story about this remarkably talented artist next week.