Marcos Grigorian: Crossroads

July 01, 2016 – August 28, 2016 Marcos Grigorian (1925-2007) was one of those few Armenian artists who found their unique niche in the panorama of world art of the second half of the 20th century. He was born in Russia, raised in Iran, received education in Italy, lived in USA, settled in Armenia, worked in various places of the world, becoming the consolidation of different cultural streams of the East and the West; as a result his unequalled art pieces were created, with all their manifestations. Marcos Girgorian was moving between genres and mediums as easily as between borders and cultures. He was at once an artist and a critic, a collector and a curator, even a movie actor for a while. He left a deep mark in all these spheres due to his manysided personality. Living the major part of his life outside Armenia, his vision was always turned to Armenian culture. Thus, it was not surprising that after the independence of the homeland in the beginning of 1990s he moved his major collection and artworks to Armenia and the Middle East Art Museum was founded.

The exhibition, Marcos Grigorian: Crossroads at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts presents several layers of the artistic legacy that the maestro left in Armenia. The exhibition is conceptually divided into two parts. 

The works that directly or indirectly are linked to the earth are presented in Eagle Gallery of the Center. Earth as medium has been and still is the most famous feature of Marcos Grigorian’s art. It is natural, as he was one of the first artists who began working in that style: back in mid 1950s in Iran he was interested by the so called kahgel, a special mud used in poor areas for construction (Farsi: لگهاک ). Later he began using not only soil, mud, earth, but also straw and ready-made objects, such as a sieve. Along with the earth art works two canvases from the series The Gate of Auschwuitz are also presented, which has a special meaning, as this work is considered to be the starting point for the earthworks of the artist. The replica of the installation for The Performance with Earthworks indirectly relates to Marcos Grigorian’s earth art.


In the scope of Marcos Grigorian’s interests carpets always had their special place, starting from late 1950s and developing along with other varied activities of the artist. In Sasuntsi Davit Garden Gallery visitors also have an opportunity to view carpets revealing Marcos Grigorian’s connection with his oriental roots. Beginning from drawing sketches of gazelles for his daughter, some years later the artist came to an unprecedented form of carpet painting, which was the Contemporary Armenian Carpet, as he used to call it. Both Armenia and Iran had a rich culture of carpet weaving. However, Marcos Grigorian created a new phenomenon, transforming the traditional forms. He not only created designs for carpets, but also studied different techniques of carpet weaving, was deeply aware of its history, and even weaved carpets himself. Moreover, when Marcos Grigorian settled in Armenia, he founded a carpet weaving workshop, where not only rugs and carpets by his designs were woven, but there also were attempts to recreate those Armenian carpets that were lost throughout centuries.

On the way of revealing the inexhaustible and energetic personality of this celebrated artist, this exhibition is an essential milestone. His life and oeuvre is a unique phenomenon, and the result is presented by these 24 artworks.  After Marcos Grigorian’s tragic death, this is the first major exhibition in Armenia, in the scope of which the main part of the artworks is from the Middle East Art Museum. The exhibition is also significant by the presentation of art pieces from private collections and other institutions. Marcos Grigorian’s art, just like his personality stands in such a cultural crossroad, where the East crosses with the West, soil meets canvas, and the Persian carpet depicts images from ancient Armenian kingdom.

Marcos Grigorian was born in Kropotkin (Russia) to a family of survivors of the Armenian Genocide in 1925. In 1930 his family moved to Iran, where in the late 1940s Grigorian received his initial education in painting. In 1954 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Returning to Tehran he became one of the founders of contemporary art in Iran in the 1950s, he was a jury member at Venice Biennale, one of the initiators of Tehran-Venice Biennale. In the 1960s he began creating his earthworks, traveling to U.S.A., having exhibitions, and finally moving to the U.S. in the late 1970s. In 1980 he founded the Gorky Gallery in New York. In 1991 he presented his major collection and artworks as a gift to Armenia, on the basis of which the Near East Art Museum was founded. He became an honored citizen of Yerevan. For decades he was creating designs for carpets as well. In Armenia he founded a carpet weaving workshop. He was also occupied with the cultural development of Garni village in Armenia. In 2007 Grigorian was assaulted and beaten by two masked robbers who had broken into his Yerevan residence; he died of a suspected heart attack on August 27, a day after leaving the hospital.

Marcos Grigorian participated in many private and group exhibitions in Iran, Italy, France, U.S.A., Germany, Ciprus, Jordan and Armenia. His works are included in the collections of some museums in Armenia, and also in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Johnson Museum in New York, Tate Modern Museum in London, Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, Empress Farah Pahlavi’s and Nelson Rockfeller’s collections, etc.

Exhibition Catalog