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Paintings From Garage Find Appreciation in Gallery
The New York
Times
Art & Design
March 8, 2013
By JAMES BARRON
For years, they languished in a Long Island garage, old canvasses
piled in a stack. Then they came close to being thrown into a garbage
truck.
For the last month, some of them have had a temporary home that could
not be more different: the whiter-than-white walls of a Madison Avenue
gallery, with the spotlights in the ceiling aimed just so.
The paintings are the work of Arthur Pinajian, a reclusive artist whom
the art world had not known much about. Now, 14 years after his death,
he has fans who mention him in the same sentence as Gauguin and
Cézanne. The art historian William Innes Homer wrote that Mr. Pinajian
had pursued art with `the single-minded focus' that those other
painters had shown and that `Pinajian was a creative force to be
reckoned with.'
With the attention comes the possibility of something Mr. Pinajian
never enjoyed in life: serious money for his paintings. Among the 34
works at the gallery are two oil paintings from 1960: No. 638, on the
market for $87,000, and No. 3868, for $72,000.
The least expensive item in the show, No. 4013, from 1987, is an
acrylic painting for $3,750. (Size may have figured in the
pricing. The oil paintings are three feet tall. The acryclic is only
11 inches tall.)
In a 2010 monograph, `Pinajian: Master of Abstraction Discovered,'
Mr. Homer wrote that Mr. Pinajian's work was surprising and that there
was =80=9Ca dichotomy in his personality.' He said there were two
sides to Mr. Pinajian, `one embodying a lyrical, romantic view of
nature, and the other, exposing the darker side of male fantasies.'
The paintings in the gallery show, which is scheduled to run through
Sunday at Antiquorum Gallery, at 41 East 57th Street, near Madison
Avenue, fall into the first category, not the erotic images of the
second. Peter Hastings Falk, an art historian and appraiser who
coordinated the show, said the paintings on view followed the artist
from Woodstock, N.Y., to Long Island, where Mr. Pinajian painted `from
the same vantage points' around Bellport as William Glackens, an
American realist painter.
On Long Island, Mr. Pinajian had an 8-foot-by-8-foot studio in a
little house owned by his sister, Armen, who supported him for much of
his life. His death in 1999 led to the discovery of the
paintings. Peter Najarian, a cousin of the Pinajians who helped with
the cleanup, explained in Mr. Homer's monograph how he had defied
Ms. Pinajian's orders.
`Oh, just put it all in the garbage,' she told him. `He said himself
to just leave it all for the garbagemen.'
Throw it all away? Mr. Najarian could not bring himself to do that,
although he had to discard `almost half the work' because it `had
become so moldy it was beyond saving.' Still, thousands of paintings
remained.
Mr. Homer wrote that he heard about the trove from his brother-in-law,
a Bellport resident who was friendly with the investors buying the
Pinajian house after Ms. Pinajian died in 2006. `I must admit that I
was only mildly impressed' at first, Mr. Homer wrote. But as he and
his wife went through everything that Mr. Pinajian had left behind,
`we became more and more excited.'
Mr. Falk said that Mr. Homer had soon called him, and that he too had
had doubts at first. `I saw some sparks of brilliance,' he said. `The
question was, was there enough to warrant the time it would take. This
wasn't even a rediscovery. That connotes an artist who was once well
known but has been forgotten in successive generations. This was an
artist who was completely unknown.'
It turned out that Mr. Pinajian had done comic-book illustrations in
the 1930s and had created the `first cross-dressing superhero' in a
series called `Madam Fatal.' He won a Bronze Star for valor in World
War II, and after attending the Art Students League on the G.I. Bill,
he began spending time in Woodstock.
Mr. Falk said Mr. Pinajian was there in 1969, when many artists hoped
a big music festival would bring crowds to local galleries. `He had
planned a breakout exhibition of erotic art,' Mr. Falk said. `But the
exhibition never happened because Woodstock happened elsewhere.' The
festival that came to define 1960s counterculture took place in
Bethel, N.Y.
Mr. Pinajian remained unknown, but not completely. For a while he kept
up with a cousin who had been hired to teach at the Pratt Institute by
George McNeil, an Abstract Expressionist painter and founder of the
American Abstract Artists group. That brought him into a circle of the
well-known artists of his generation, like Franz Kline, Philip Guston
and Jacob Lawrence, and into the bars they frequented on DeKalb Avenue
in Brooklyn and in Greenwich Village.
`This is an artist who let his own story emerge naturally,' Mr. Falk
said. `You take in everything from the history of comic books all the
way to the New York Abstract Expressionists. We know that before he
really became a hermit, he knew all these guys.'
A version of this article appeared in print on March 9, 2013, on page
A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Paintings From Garage
Find Appreciation in Gallery.
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
"Peter Hastings Falk, an art historian, coordinated the gallery show
of Arthur Pinajian's work at Antiquorum in Manhattan" (Courtesy of
Marcus Yam for The New York Times).
"An oil painting from 1960" (Courtesy of The Estate Collection of
Arthur Pinajian) "Arthur Pinajian had an 8-foot-by-8-foot studio in a
little house owned by his sister, Armen, who supported him for much of
his life" (Courtesy of Kirk Condyles for The New York Times).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
The New York
Times
Art & Design
March 8, 2013
By JAMES BARRON
For years, they languished in a Long Island garage, old canvasses
piled in a stack. Then they came close to being thrown into a garbage
truck.
For the last month, some of them have had a temporary home that could
not be more different: the whiter-than-white walls of a Madison Avenue
gallery, with the spotlights in the ceiling aimed just so.
The paintings are the work of Arthur Pinajian, a reclusive artist whom
the art world had not known much about. Now, 14 years after his death,
he has fans who mention him in the same sentence as Gauguin and
Cézanne. The art historian William Innes Homer wrote that Mr. Pinajian
had pursued art with `the single-minded focus' that those other
painters had shown and that `Pinajian was a creative force to be
reckoned with.'
With the attention comes the possibility of something Mr. Pinajian
never enjoyed in life: serious money for his paintings. Among the 34
works at the gallery are two oil paintings from 1960: No. 638, on the
market for $87,000, and No. 3868, for $72,000.
The least expensive item in the show, No. 4013, from 1987, is an
acrylic painting for $3,750. (Size may have figured in the
pricing. The oil paintings are three feet tall. The acryclic is only
11 inches tall.)
In a 2010 monograph, `Pinajian: Master of Abstraction Discovered,'
Mr. Homer wrote that Mr. Pinajian's work was surprising and that there
was =80=9Ca dichotomy in his personality.' He said there were two
sides to Mr. Pinajian, `one embodying a lyrical, romantic view of
nature, and the other, exposing the darker side of male fantasies.'
The paintings in the gallery show, which is scheduled to run through
Sunday at Antiquorum Gallery, at 41 East 57th Street, near Madison
Avenue, fall into the first category, not the erotic images of the
second. Peter Hastings Falk, an art historian and appraiser who
coordinated the show, said the paintings on view followed the artist
from Woodstock, N.Y., to Long Island, where Mr. Pinajian painted `from
the same vantage points' around Bellport as William Glackens, an
American realist painter.
On Long Island, Mr. Pinajian had an 8-foot-by-8-foot studio in a
little house owned by his sister, Armen, who supported him for much of
his life. His death in 1999 led to the discovery of the
paintings. Peter Najarian, a cousin of the Pinajians who helped with
the cleanup, explained in Mr. Homer's monograph how he had defied
Ms. Pinajian's orders.
`Oh, just put it all in the garbage,' she told him. `He said himself
to just leave it all for the garbagemen.'
Throw it all away? Mr. Najarian could not bring himself to do that,
although he had to discard `almost half the work' because it `had
become so moldy it was beyond saving.' Still, thousands of paintings
remained.
Mr. Homer wrote that he heard about the trove from his brother-in-law,
a Bellport resident who was friendly with the investors buying the
Pinajian house after Ms. Pinajian died in 2006. `I must admit that I
was only mildly impressed' at first, Mr. Homer wrote. But as he and
his wife went through everything that Mr. Pinajian had left behind,
`we became more and more excited.'
Mr. Falk said that Mr. Homer had soon called him, and that he too had
had doubts at first. `I saw some sparks of brilliance,' he said. `The
question was, was there enough to warrant the time it would take. This
wasn't even a rediscovery. That connotes an artist who was once well
known but has been forgotten in successive generations. This was an
artist who was completely unknown.'
It turned out that Mr. Pinajian had done comic-book illustrations in
the 1930s and had created the `first cross-dressing superhero' in a
series called `Madam Fatal.' He won a Bronze Star for valor in World
War II, and after attending the Art Students League on the G.I. Bill,
he began spending time in Woodstock.
Mr. Falk said Mr. Pinajian was there in 1969, when many artists hoped
a big music festival would bring crowds to local galleries. `He had
planned a breakout exhibition of erotic art,' Mr. Falk said. `But the
exhibition never happened because Woodstock happened elsewhere.' The
festival that came to define 1960s counterculture took place in
Bethel, N.Y.
Mr. Pinajian remained unknown, but not completely. For a while he kept
up with a cousin who had been hired to teach at the Pratt Institute by
George McNeil, an Abstract Expressionist painter and founder of the
American Abstract Artists group. That brought him into a circle of the
well-known artists of his generation, like Franz Kline, Philip Guston
and Jacob Lawrence, and into the bars they frequented on DeKalb Avenue
in Brooklyn and in Greenwich Village.
`This is an artist who let his own story emerge naturally,' Mr. Falk
said. `You take in everything from the history of comic books all the
way to the New York Abstract Expressionists. We know that before he
really became a hermit, he knew all these guys.'
A version of this article appeared in print on March 9, 2013, on page
A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Paintings From Garage
Find Appreciation in Gallery.
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
"Peter Hastings Falk, an art historian, coordinated the gallery show
of Arthur Pinajian's work at Antiquorum in Manhattan" (Courtesy of
Marcus Yam for The New York Times).
"An oil painting from 1960" (Courtesy of The Estate Collection of
Arthur Pinajian) "Arthur Pinajian had an 8-foot-by-8-foot studio in a
little house owned by his sister, Armen, who supported him for much of
his life" (Courtesy of Kirk Condyles for The New York Times).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress