Marcos Grigorian, known as Marco Grigorian was an Iranian-Armenian and American artist and gallery owner, and he was a pioneer of Iranian modern art.
12 Facts About Marcos Grigorian
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Marcos Grigorian was an influential teacher at the Fine Arts Academy, where he disseminated his enthusiasm for local popular culture, including coffee-house paintings, a type of folk art named after the locations in which they were often displayed.
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Marcos Grigorian lived in the 1960s in the United States; first moving in 1962 to New York City, and then moved to Minneapolis to work at Minnetonka Center for the Arts.
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In 1975, Marcos Grigorian helped organize the Independent Artists Group in Tehran and was a founding member.
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Marcos Grigorian exhibited his clay and straw works in Yerevan in 1991.
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Marcos Grigorian was an early artist with land art in Iran.
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Marcos Grigorian eventually moved to Yerevan, Armenia.
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Marcos Grigorian later donated 5,000 of his artworks to the government of Armenia.
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Marcos Grigorian's work is included in various museum collections, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art in Kerman; the Near East Art Museum in Yerevan; and the National Gallery of Armenia.
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On 5 August 2007, Marcos Grigorian was assaulted and was beaten in the head by two masked robbers who had broken into his Yerevan home.
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Marcos Grigorian died of a suspected heart attack on 27 August 2007, a day after leaving the hospital.
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Marcos Grigorian was married in 1955 to Flora Adamian, but the marriage ended in divorce by 1960.