Los Angeles museum to host lecture on Armenian orphans who became painters

Ararat-Eskijian Museum of Los Angeles district Mission Hills and National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, hold an illustrated talk titled “The Armenian Orphans Who Became Painters” by Prof. Levon Chookaszian Director of the UNESCO Chair of Art History at Yerevan State University.

According to Californian Armenian website MassisPost.com, many of the Armenian orphans who survived the Armenian Genocide and grew up in different orphanages became well known painters and sculptors.

Unfortunately, no special survey on those artists has been carried out up to now.

Some who became famous painters were Levon Tutunjian (1906-1968), the painter and sculptor Khoren Der-Harootian (1909-1991), Kero Antoian (1912-1994), Simon Samsonian (1915-2004), Harutiun Galentz.

The Abstract Art and Surrealism were the closest forms of self-expression and style for them. Through their art, they expressed their recollections of the homeland, told about the refugee nostalgia and described the horrific events they had witnessed.