Late 20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

"The First Bird with Egg, Duckling Abstraction" is an original oil pastel on board by Reginald K. Gee. The artist initialed the piece on the back. It features an abstracted duckling ...

"Tarkan" is an original oil pastel drawing on a paper bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It features an abstract portrait in bright, expressionistic col...

aka Beni Kosh Untitled (Abstraction) Watercolor on paper, 1970's Unsigned Ben Kosh Estate Stamp verso, No. 754 Condition: Very good Sheet size: 10 5/8 x 14 9/16 inches Provenance: Estate the Artist Bingham & Vance, Shaker Heights...

In the 1970s, the beginning of a new phase in Francis’ career was defined by the emergence of the ‘color blotches’. These spots of gritty, shimmering color were made through glazes, ...

"J.D. Wovel Wearing Helmet" is an original oil pastel drawing on a paper bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It features an abstract portrait in orange, ...

"Stay Go Stay Go" is an original oil pastel drawing mounted to cardboard by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It depicts two wide-eyed faces blending into a j...

"The Plan Begins" is an original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right and dated it on the back. It features two abstracted ...

David Storey Untitled, 1993 Charcoal and pastel 29 x 19 inches (sheet) 30 x 20 inches (frame) Unsigned Natural wood frame with light white wash. Floated in window opening. 1.5'' dep...

Jacques GERMAIN (1915-2001) Untitled Circa 1970 Ink on Paper Signed J.G Dimensions: 20 x 30 cm Born in Paris in 1915, worked with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant at the Acadé...

Abstract expressionist, pastel on black paper by English artist John McQuirk. Signed bottom right. McQuirk's work is an example of outsider art or art brut. Born in 1933, the arti...

Kachina Figures, by Dan Namingha, green, black, framed, Hopi, drawing, katsina

Ronnie Cutrone Your Own Heart, 1987 Watercolor and Silkscreen on Paper Signed, dated and numbered from the edition of 7, with each work being unique. 40 × 30 inches Fantastic vintage...

Martha Holden, American (1951 -) - Abstract Composition, Year: 1983, Medium: Monotype, stencil, graphite and ink on handmade paper, signed and dated in pen lower right, Size: 38 x...

Recordando el gran artista Alberto Riano Mangos Marzo, 2014 by Celso Castro Black paint, and pastel on archival paper Image size: 39.2 H in. x 28 in. W Unframed ____________ Undefin...

Famed graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff creates a portrait made from cut paper and magazine clippings. Chermayeff names it "Old Lady with Spring Hat " and as one views it "charming"...

This Vicente has a color glow akin to a Mark Rothko. Vicente explored parallel ideas to Rothko and others of the abstract expressionist and color field era. The pastel gives this w...

This later work by Lyonel Feininger approaches almost full abstraction. It was executed in 1950 at a crucial moment in American art history. Abstract Expressionism and non-representational art were in full gear and taking the world by storm. Yet Feininger who was associated with the German expressionist groups: Die Brücke...

Paul Allen Reed Untitled #31, 1982 Oil pastel on paper Pencil signed dated and annotated "7 10 79 1" by Paul Reed on the lower front Frame included: This work is elegantly floated an...

Lyman Kipp Untitled Minimalist painting on paper, 1980 Color oil painting on paper done with ink paint roller Signed and dated on the front Unique Frame included Signed and dated 19...

"Bobine" is a gouache and ink on paper by Alexander Calder. The work is signed in the lower right "Calder 72". Although renowned for his innovative and groundbreaking sculptures, Alexander Calder started his artistic career as an abstract painter, preferring to use gouache. What is gouache? Gouache is a water-soluble paint – a type of opaque watercolor. As Calder returned to gouache painting towards the end of his life, he was now armed with a lifetime of experience as a sculptor. He explored the three-dimensional vocabulary of sculptural forms he had developed onto the two-dimensional surface of the paper. Certain shapes and colors recur throughout his gouaches and sculptures. Circles, ovals, and other geometric forms dominate the space. There is the same sense of energy and fluidity. The shapes do not sit on the surface but vibrate giving a feeling of movement in contrast to the static nature of painting. Like his sculpture, Calder’s gouache...

Tom Holland (b. 1936) Violet, 1971 Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper. Hand Signed. Framed with Charles Cowles Gallery, Albright Knox Gallery and Baltimore Museum of Art labels. Han...

Signed lower right, "Maxon" for John Maxon (American, 20th century) and created circa 1995. Additionally titled, verso, 'White Flower'. Monotype with additional hand-painted detail. ...

Max Epstein, Canadian (1932 - 2002) - Untitled 1, Year: 1973, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Size: 22 in. x 30 in. (55.88 cm x 76.2 cm)

Max Epstein, Canadian (1932 - 2002) - untitled 4, Year: 1973, Medium: Watercolor on Paper, Signed and dated l.r., Size: 30 in. x 22 in. (76.2 cm x 55.88 cm), Frame Size: 43 x 32 ...

Abstract Expressionist design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number . Ilegible signature We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this ...

Abstract Expressionist design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number . Ilegible signature We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this ...

Abstract Expressionist design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number . Ilegible signature We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this ...

Abstract Expressionist design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number . Ilegible signature We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this ...

Anthony Padovano Untitled Abstract Expressionist drawing, 1971 Ink wash on paper drawing Signed and dated in ink wash Unique Original (unique) signed Abstract Expressionist ink wash ...

Modern abstract pastel on paper, the work is signed to the back of the paper, Djoklevic. A bright and colourful abstract pastel in the style of Alexander Calder. It could be an inte...

Domenick Capobianco (American, b. 1928), "Hearts", Mixed Media on Paper, unsigned, titled to verso. 43.25" H x 45.25" W. Provenance: From the Collection of the artist. Note: Domenick...

Keith Haring Untitled drawing inscribed to David, 1988 Original drawing on paper bound in historic monograph, inscribed to David Copley Boldly signed, inscribed and dated in black marker above the drawing This is a unique work Provenance: Estate of David Copley Iconic, unique radiant baby drawing...

Abstract Expressionist design. Sealed on the back with the design studio name and number . Ilegible signature We offer a small number of these original illustration designs by this ...

Vagues “Wave” by TOSHIMITSU ÏMAI (1928-2002) Acrylic on paper 127 x 95 cm (50 x 37 3⁄8 inches) Signed in Japanese and English lower right, inscribed and dated 1992 on the reverse Provenance: Studio of the artist Dr Jean-Paul Coussy (Director of MCAP Museum, France), acquired directly from the artist, March 15th 1998 Dr Giorgio Tosetti, Italy, acquired from the above Exhibitions: Paris, Galerie Chozo Yoshii, Hommage à André Malraux - Les voix du Silence, September - November 1997 Literature G. C. Calza, Imaï, Electa, Milan, 1998 (Onde/Waves series) Artist biography: Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1928 Imai was part of the 20th century Japanese avant-garde. He began his formal education at the Tokyo State Art Academy where he took up painting. His early works are characterised by colourful abstractions, reminiscent of Favuism. In 1951 Imai was awarded the Kansai-Shinseisaku Prize and in 1952 the prize for the best new artist at the 15th Shinseisaku Salon. Imai relocated to Paris in 1953, the same and subsequent year he exhibited at the Salon de L’Art Sacré. Meanwhile, he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Sorbonne to read medieval history and philosophy. In 1955, Imai completely abandoned representational art in favour of abstraction. After meeting the art critic Michel Tapié via the artist Sam Francis, Imai was the first Japanese artist to join the Art Informel movement. In 1956 Imai was called upon by the Japanese artist Taro Okamoto to curate an exhibition entitled The World: Today’s Art in Tokyo. Artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Jean Fautrier, Lucio Fontana, and Karel Appel gained important exposure in Japan. It was also in 1957, when Imai arranged for Tapié and the artists Georges Mathieu and Sam Francis to travel to Japan, that a connection between Art Informel and Gutai occurred. The Ashiya-based Gutai Art Association formed in 1954 was proclaimed a kindred spirit by Tapié which he subsequently promoted internationally. Founding members included Yoshihara Jiro, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Shiraga Kazuo and Shozo...

Andrée HONOREE (1945-1992) Untitled, 1980 Gouache on paper Signed and dated "1980" lower center 43 x 31.5 cm Born in 1945 in Tourcoing, Andrée Honoré is one of the women sculptors who have chosen wood as their main medium. For a time, she had a studio in the Passage Ricaut in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, where she worked alongside the artists Jacques Hérold (1901-1987), Edgard Pillet...

Sol LeWitt Unique Geometric Abstraction on Postcard, 1982 Original drawing done on postcard from the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), mailed, stamped and postmarked (franked) from Spolet...

Lithograph realized by an italian artist in 1970s. Hand signed and numbered. Edition of 100. Very good condition.

The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

Judy Pfaff Untitled, 1994 Collage, Mixed media, Gouache and Leaves on paper, in Artist's Frame. Signed with Andre Emmerich & Bellas Artes Gallery Labels - accompanied by original shi...

Work on paper without frame

Seiichi Hara (Japanese). Portrait of Aiko, 1972. Pencil, gouache on paper. Sheet measures 16 x 20 inches. Signed lower right and en verso. Custom frame of hardwood with welded steel ...

'Composition in Orange and Red', gouache on paper, by James Pichette (circa 1970s). A dynamic, lively abstract composition by an artist known for such s...

An original mixed media pastel and watercolor on paper by American female artist Adele Becker. This work is currently being offered unframed. Proceeds from the sale of this work wi...

A large minimal abstract painting on paper by Yasmin Brandolini. Artist: Yasmin Brandolini d'Adda, South African/Italian (1929 - ) Title: 6C Year: 1984 Medium: Tempera on Paper, sig...

1980s abstract expressionist biomorphic coloured pencil drawing on paper by Belgian artist André Pierret, signed bottom right. André Pierret was born ...

Kenny Scharf Original drawing on Tony Shafrazi poster, signed and inscribed to Andy Warhol's last boyfriend Jon Gould, 1984 Permanent marker drawing on Kenny Scharf Tony Shafrazi Gallery exhibition poster (hand signed and inscribed by Kenny Scharf) Boldly signed and inscribed to Andy Warhol's last boyfriend Jon Gould Frame included: Framed in a museum quality wood frame with UV plexiglass. Measurements: Frame: 35 x 28.5 x 1.5 inches Print 28.25 x 22 inches Own a piece of Pop Art history! This is a unique drawing hand signed and inscribed by Kenny Scharf, done on a vintage collectible 1984 poster from the legendary Tony Shafrazi Gallery. If you saw "The Andy Warhol Diaries" on Netflix, you'd know about Warhol's relationship with Jon Gould - Andy's last boyfriend; tragically, Warhol would become Gould's last boyfriend as well, when, soon after, Gould would die of AIDS at the young age of 33 Kenny Scharf created an original drawing, done in marker, and inscribed it to Jon Gould (featured prominently in Andy Warhol's Diaries and the eponymous Netflix series) - and it had not been seen since the 1980s. Jon Gould was a New England educated former Vice President of Corporate Communications at Paramount Pictures - a Boston Brahmin whose real claim to fame was as Andy Warhol's last boyfriend. This work was acquired from the widely publicized sale of the collection of Jon Gould - -a treasure trove of valuable gifts and art works by Warhol and others like Kenny Scharf, Basquiat and Keith Haring to Gould - that had not been seen in nearly four decades. This is one of the works from that impressive sale. Below are links to two of the many articles about the collection of Jon Gould in the New York Times, Artnet News and the New York Post respectively. About Kenny Scharf: Kenny Scharf (b. 1958, United States) is a renowned artist affiliated with the 1980’s East Village Art movement in New York. Scharf developed a distinct and uniquely personal artistic style in paintings as well as sculpture, alongside his mentor Andy Warhol, and contemporaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring with whom he pioneered contemporary street art. References to popular culture reoccur throughout his works, such as appropriated cartoon characters from the Flintstones and Jetsons, as well as imagined anthropomorphic creatures. Through ecstatic compositions and a dazzling color palette, Scharf presents an immersive viewing experience that is both intimate and fresh. Scharf’s multifaceted practice—spanning painting, sculpture, installation work, murals, performance and fashion—reflects his dedication to the creation of dynamic forms of art that deconstruct existing artistic hierarchies, echoing the philosophy of Pop artists. Yet Scharf’s artistic significance expands beyond the art historical terrain of Pop Art; the artist instead coined the term “Pop Surrealist” to describe his one-of-a-kind practice. His inclusion in the 1985 Whitney Biennial marked the start of his international phenomenon, a reputation that continues to thrive today. Courtesy of Almine Rech MORE ABOUT JON GOULD: Warhol wrote extensively on Jon Gould in his diaries. In July, 2022, when the Netflix series "The Andy Warhols Diaries" came out, the New York Post (among many other publications) ran a major feature article on Warhol's relationship with Gould and on this very sale: It reads, "When Harriet Woodsom Gould died in 2016 in her nineties, she left behind a trove of family heirlooms dating back to the 1700s in her Amesbury, Mass., home. Yet in her attic, she had a secret veritable shrine to pop art. There, she had stashed her late son Jon Gould’s belongings for decades since his death in 1986 from AIDS. He had vases painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat, works by Keith Haring and dozens and dozens of gifts — photos, valentines, sketches, letters and more — from pop god Andy Warhol. “My mother kept everything,” Jon’s twin brother, Jay Gould, told The Post. Jay knew his brother “had some type of relationship” with Warhol in the 1980s, though Jon always remained discreet about it. “We were very close, identical twins, but we never talked a lot about his sexuality,” Jay, now 68, explained. “It was a different time.” Yet, he was still stunned to read the poetry and love notes Jon wrote to the older artist. “I didn’t realize the relationship was as deep as it was.” Actually, no one really knew. Gould was Warhol’s last romance, a young Paramount executive with floppy hair and preppy good looks who died tragically at 33. And though Warhol frequently mentioned him in his famed diaries, published posthumously in 1989, the artist’s dashed-off musings gave the impression that Jon was more of a crush than a genuine partner...Gould didn’t so much enter into Warhol’s life as Warhol willed him into it. It was April 1981, and Warhol, then 52, was still reeling from his breakup with Jed Johnson... Jed left that December, and that spring Warhol confessed to feeling lonely: “I’ve got these desperate feelings that nothing means anything. And then I decide that I should try to fall in love, and that’s what I’m doing now with Jon Gould.” Gould was a 26-year-old Paramount exec: a New England WASP with a lithe, strong physique and charismatic personality, who looked straight. Warhol reasoned: “Jon is a good person to be in love with because he has his own career, and I can develop movie ideas with him, you know? And maybe he can even convince Paramount to advertise in Interview, too. Right? So my crush on him will be good for business.” Warhol began courting Gould with a vengeance, sending extravagant bouquets of roses to his office at Paramount. He even offered their mutual friend, the photographer Christopher Makos, a fancy watch if he could get Gould to be his boyfriend. “I guess he never got loved,” Makos says in the series. “Because I didn’t get my watch.” (Jay Gould also tells the camera that his brother had admitted that he was in a relationship but that he said they didn’t have sex.) At first, Gould resisted Warhol’s attention, but eventually the two began spending a lot of time together, though Gould would frequently pull away if things got too intense, and he often would tell Warhol not to write about him in his diary. “I think my brother was concerned about his career at that time,” Jay Gould said. But the younger man attended parties and art events with him, invited the artist skiing with his family in Aspen and even for a time moved into his place on 66th Street. “I love going out with Jon because it’s like being on a real date,” Warhol wrote early in their relationship. “He’s tall and strong and I feel like he can take care of me.” Yet it turned out that Warhol would have to take care of Gould. On Feb. 4, 1984, Jon was admitted to New York Hospital with pneumonia — though it was understood that he had AIDS. Warhol stayed with him in the hospital every night for the 30 days he was there, despite his fear of hospitals since getting shot and his fear of getting AIDS. (Warhol couldn’t bring himself to talk about Gould’s illness in the diary, but his editor notes that when Gould was released March 7, Warhol instructed his housekeepers to wash Jon’s clothes and dishes “separate from mine.”). Around 1985, Warhol began working on his massive series of 100 works based on Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper...

Barbara Keidel Untitled Abstract in Beige Pastel Drawing on Paper 1995 Signed and dated in pencil Size: 6.25 x 7.5 inches (15.875 x 19.05 cm) COA provided *Framing options avail...

Elaine Kaufman Feiner (1922-2018) "Hawaii II" 1993 Oil pastel, paint on paper 30"x40" unframed Signed and dated in pencil lower right, signed, titled and dated on reverse

Red Grooms Ruckus Rodeo, 1975 Acrylic and felt tip pen on paper Signed and dated in black felt marker Unique work Provenance: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, with original label verso Fr...

Original Fashion Design Illustration by Roz Jennings, British watercolor and ink on card, unframed size: 11.75 x 8.25 inches condition: very good A beautifully colorful and characte...

Emily Mason Untitled (For Douglas), 1990 Carborundum etching and monotype on paper Pencil signed, dated and inscribed "For Douglas" Vintage wood frame included This work was created ...

Michael Tracy In the Garden of the Hummingbirds, No XIX, 1992 22 1/2 x 30 in (57.2 x 76.2 cm), unframed 25 1/2 x 33 1/2 in (64.8 x 85.1 cm), framed JPHB 5649

Robert Indiana "My portrait was taken on Coenties Slip"...., 1993 Handwritten letter on an offset lithograph postcard Boldly signed in black marker under the letter 4 2/5 × 7 3/5 inches Unframed Unique one-of-a-kind hand written, hand signed note from Robert Indiana, dated 23 VII '93, written on the postcard depicting Robert Indiana's work "Mother and Father", published by the Farnsworth Museum in Maine. The note, done in black marker, is addressed to Don Allan II of Barrington, N.H. and reads" "DON - MY PORTRAIT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW, WAS TAKEN ON COENTIES SLIP IN NYC". Robert Indiana then signs the note.. (Presumably, the reply is in response to a letter or question this fan sent to the artist asking where Indiana's portrait was taken). Makes a great gift for Robert Indiana fans! Coenties Slip is a historic artist's address in the New York art scene - there was even a book written about it! Coenties Slip is a street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It runs southeast for two blocks in Lower Manhattan from Pearl Street to South Street. A walkway runs an additional block north from Pearl Street to Stone Street Here's an excerpt from Art in America reviewing the book: "How does specificity of place play a role in art, enough to become more figure than ground, less a context than a character? This is one of the larger questions framing art historian Prudence Peiffer’s momentous new survey The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever. The book vividly documents a moment in the 1950s and ’60s when a cast of artists settled, at staggered intervals, in a three-block area around Coenties Slip, a street on Manhattan’s lower tip. Coenties Slip borrowed its name from one of the “slips”—inlets for the docking and repairing of boats—that once cut sharply into New York’s downtown waterfront, facilitating the busy circulation of fish, freight, and sailors between land and sea. While New York’s status as a maritime trading hub lured fleets of boats, it was the skeletal remains of that activity, by then sharply diminished, that drew artists to Coenties Slip. In place of industry, they found vast and vacant loft spaces, cheap to rent, in which they could both work and live (illegally, owing to zoning laws)....Peiffer’s book arrives nearly 50 years after the earliest attempt to honor the Slip: the 1974 exhibition “Nine Artists/Coenties Slip,” organized for an old downtown branch of the Whitney Museum on Water Street nearby. The exhibition showcased lesser-known inhabitants of the Slip, including Fred Mitchell (the first to settle there), Ann Wilson...

Delicate kimono by Patricia A. Pearce (American, b. 1948). This piece has an iridescent quality to the coloration. This piece is unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of other...

Abstract expressionist CoBrA style chalk on paper of a human figure attributed to French artist, A Nuchy. The work is unsigned but was acquired along with ...

Elaine Kaufman Feiner (1922-2018) "Night Glow I" 1988 Watercolor and pastel on paper 30"x30" unframed Signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled reverse

Daniel Maffia, French (1937 - ) - Two White Horses, Year: 1984, Medium: Oil and Watercolor on Paper, signed and dated lower right, Size: 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.88 cm), Frame Size:...

Simon Samsonian (1912 - 2003) Colorful Geometric Abstraction, 1981 Oil on paper 16 x 22 inches Signed and dated lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist This survivor of the Armenian genocide wound up in a Cairo orphanage in 1927. He rose to fame as one of Egypt’s great modernists, but after moving to Long Island late in life he withdrew into anonymity. Now his compelling story is being told. Art historians are finally beginning to realize that the power of abstraction in its early years was a zeitgeist not limited to the major European centers of the avant-garde — Paris, Munich, and Moscow — but one that quickly rippled to major cities throughout the world. Within a few decades that original shock of a new vision had inspired thousands of artists from different cultures — particularly those the Middle East — whose translations were not slavish imitations of works by seminal figures like Picasso, Braque, Malevich, and Kandinsky but creative variants colored by their respective cultures. This essay focuses on an extraordinary Armenian artist, his harrowing survival of the genocide, his rise to fame in Cairo, and his creation of a unique style of abstraction. Art historians have typically formed a chorus that teaches the history of abstraction like this: Just before and during the World War I era, several avant-garde artists emerged to create shockingly different new forms by which artists could express themselves. In Paris, Picasso and Braque broke out with cubism, quickly followed by Mondrian. In Moscow, Malevich created Suprematism, the ultimate hard-edge geometric abstraction. And in Munich, Kandinsky emerged as the father of Abstract Expressionism. Within these few short years a zeitgeist was sensed throughout the art world. American pioneers, too — particularly Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell — felt this explosive freedom of expression. When Europe was recovering after World War I it became clear that Paris would retain its title as capitol of the art world, lasting through the Roaring Twenties and even through the Great Depression. But the end of World War II changed everything. A parallel war had been won by a group of irascible young Abstract Expressionists in New York — led by Pollock, Rothko, DeKooning, and Kline. No sooner had Paris been liberated from the Germans than Picasso, Matisse, Breton, and Duchamp surrendered to the Americans. From that point on New York would be the epicenter of the art world. But a lens that focuses myopically on the war between the avant-garde of Paris and New York misses the wider narrative of multiple aesthetic modernities that developed in the several decades following World War I. For Armenian artists the matter is even more complex owing to the genocide of 1915 where more than 1.5 million people — seventy-five percent of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — were massacred. Those not shot on the spot were sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped and forced to walk naked under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. As a child Samsonian witnessed the murder of his parents and most of the members of his family. Soon thereafter, his older sister, Anahid, quickly shepherded him into a line of children being rescued by Greek nuns. But they became separated and he lost her, too. He was sent to a Greek orphanage in Smyrna (now Izmir), on Turkey’s west coast. Because he only knew his first name, the orphanage gave him a last name based on the place where they found him — Samsun — a major port on Turkey’s north coast on the Black Sea. His birth date was unknown, too. According to Samsonian’s vague recollections he assumed he was about three or four years old at the onset of the genocide, which would place his birth year in 1911 or 1912. In 1922, when Samsonian was about 10, the Turks ended their war with the Greeks by putting Smyrna to the torch in what has been called the “Catastrophe of Smyrna.” Once again, the child was on the run, escaping the fire and slaughter. He found temporary refuge in Constantinople, but within a year that major port would fall to the Turks, too, and become renamed as Istanbul. This time, Samsonian was whisked away to an orphanage in Greece founded by the American charity, Near East Relief — which is credited with saving so many Armenian orphans that the American historian Howard M. Sachar said it “quite literally kept an entire nation alive. Any understanding of Samsonian’s approach to modernism requires careful consideration of the impact of his early years because his art is inseparable from the anguish he experienced. In 1927, when he was a teenager, he was transferred to Cairo, Egypt, then a cosmopolitan city hosting a sizable portion of the Armenian diaspora. There he lived with thirty-two other children on the top floor of the Kalousdian Armenian School. Upon graduating in 1932 he won a scholarship to attend the Leonardo da Vinci Art Institute — an Italian art school in Cairo — where he won first prize in final examinations among one hundred students. He found work with an Armenian lithographic printer and he returned to the Kalousdian Armenian School to teach drawing. In 1939 he married one of his students, Lucy Guendimian. The Cairo in which Samsonian matured as an artist was home to many prominent art collectors after World War I. In this receptive environment Samsonian exhibited widely and won many awards. Beginning in 1937 and for the next thirty years he exhibited annually at the prestigious Le Salon du Caire hosted by the Société les Amis de l’Art (founded in 1921). After World War II he hit his stride as a modernist in Cairo, counting among his peers other artists of the Armenian diaspora such as Onnig Avedissian, Achod Zorian, Gregoire Meguerdichian, Hagop Hagopian...