When Professor William Innes Homer, dean of American art historians, was asked to examine the life’s work of an unknown artist in 2007, he was stunned by what he found: a large body of extraordinary abstract landscape and figurative paintings by a highly gifted artist who was completely unknown in his lifetime. Soon a team of art historians was conducting research into the life and art of Arthur Pinajian [1914-1999].  The result is a book and traveling exhibition entitled, Pinajian: Master of Abstraction Discovered, to be on display at the Armenian Library and Museum of America. 

As a boy growing up in an Armenian community in West Hoboken, New Jersey, Pinajian was a completely self-trained cartoonist. During the Great Depression he became one of the pioneers in a new medium: the comic book.  After World War II, he enrolled at the Art Students League in Woodstock. For twenty-two years, his life revolved around Woodstock — albeit largely reclusively — while he passionately pursued his painting.  His admirable poetic color combinations are linked to the tonalities of his better-known fellow Armenian, Arshile Gorky [ca.1904-1948]. Late in life, he moved with his sister to Bellport, Long Island. There, he strived for visual and spiritual conclusions regarding flatness and color that parallel the goals of the Abstract Expressionists.

The fascinating story surrounding the discovery first broke in the New York Times in March 2007, in a feature article titled, “Closing on a House, and a Life’s Story, Told in Art.” After Pinajian’s death in 1999, five decades of accumulated artwork was found stacked up in the one-car garage and attic of the Bellport cottage he shared with his sister.  He had left instructions for his collection to be discarded in the town dump.  Fortunately for American art history, Lawrence E. Joseph, the best-selling author of Apocalypse 2012 bought the cottage and rescued the collection just in time.

View the remarkable artworks of this noteworthy artist at ALMA and join us for a special opening reception with wine and refreshments on November 7, 2010 from 2-5 pm where Peter Hastings Falk, editor of Who Was Who in American Art, gives a talk about the life and work of Pinajian.