Abstract Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Wayvox, 1986 Ballpoint pen on paper 11 x 8-1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Signed, titled, and dated, lower margin At the heart of Bousfield's work lies a lyrical celebration of color and ...

Charles Hinman Untitled Geometric Abstraction (Hand Signed), 1980 Pastel & Graphite painting on Paper Signed and dedicated to "Michael and Rene" in graphite by the artist on the fron...

D. Tongen "Yellow and Black" 1980s 19.75"x12.5" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen "Rust and Black" 1980s 18.5"x 13" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen "Olive Green and Black" 1980s 19.75"x12.5" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen "Orange, Brown, Black" 1980s 11.75"x10" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Signed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen Mint, Orange, Yellow, Black 1980s 11.75"x10.5" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Signed in pencil lower right

Beautiful floral still life by American artist Jane Piper (1916-1991) . Pastel, oil crayon and pencil on tracing paper. Image measuring 13 x 15.5 inches in original frame measuring 2...

D. Tongen Pink, Blue, Mint, Black 1980s 12.75"x9.75" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen "Yellow,Blue, Black" 1980s 12.75"x10" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed in pencil lower right

D. Tongen "Orange and Blue" 1980s 11.75"x9.75" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed and dated in pencil lower right

This is a mixed media monoprint titled Homage a Sam (I first thought it was for Sam Gilliam but the artist told me it was for Sam Francis. He has done a number of these Homages as I ...

Although Ray Mead (1921-1988) was born in the UK, studied at the famed Slade School of Art, and served in the Royal Air Force during the war, his artistic career was established and ...

David Knudsvig Cteno Drawings 1989 Set of ten ink drawings 33 x 26 in. / 83.8 x 66 cm The artist and sculptor David Knudsvig (1947-1993) was a prominent AIDS activist and was the partner of artist David Nelson...

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 w...

The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate

QUIRIJN VAN TIEL Rotterdam 1900-1967 Rhoon CHURCH COURT, ST. CIRQUE MADELON 1958 Gouache on paper 57 x 45 cm. Signed and dated: lower left "Quirijn ...

This is original watercolor over a limited edition woodcut political poster. hand signed, dated and numbered. it bears similarity to works by Alexander Calder. Employing a star and abstract design. Katherine Porter is an American artist born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1941. She received her BA from Colorado College in 1963. Katherine Porter received an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She has shown twice in the Whitney Biennial and solo exhibitions at the Knoedler Gallery in London, the Nina Nielsen Gallery in Boston, and the Andre Emmerich and Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Tel Aviv Museum and Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem. (Katherine Page Porter, Katherine Pavlis Porter) Her exhibitions include biennials in 1976 and 1981 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; 1980 at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts; 1981, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; 1985, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; and 1987 at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York City. Classic Americana. American Abstract Expressionism. Early Pattern and Decoration piece, The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The P&D movement wanted to revive an interest in minor forms such as patterning which at that point was equated with triviality. The prevailing negative view of decoration was one not generally shared by non-Western cultures, The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement and the Feminist art movement. The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements. Mary Grigoriadis Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiro, Robert Zakanitch all worked in this same vein. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria Victoria Munroe Fine Art, Boston, MA Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA Salander O’Reilly Gallery, New York, NY Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY Knoedler Gallery, London Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY Pace Gallery, Addison, ME Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (drawings) Harcus Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Contemporary Landscape Painting, Nagoya/Boston Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan From the Collection of Edward Broida, Palm Beach Art Museum, Palm Beach, FL Abstraction Per Se (through January 1993), Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY Painting Self-Evident (Curator), Picolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC Art on Paper 1990, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The University of North Carolina, Museo Barjola, Gijon, Spain; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY Sightings, Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos, Barcelona; Casa Revilla, Valladolid, Invitational, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT Atelier Project, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY Landscape Show, Allan Frumkin Gallery, NY Rethinking the Avant-Garde, by Jonathan Fineberg, The Katonah Gallery, NY Nancy Hoffman Gallery, NY Group Show, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland Contemporary Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, NY Modern Expressionist: German, Italian, & American Painters, Sidney Janis Gallery, NY American Women Artists, Part II: Younger Generation, Sidney Janis Gallery, NY Contemporary Works on Paper, Frumkin-Adams Gallery, NY Hassam Speicher Purchase Fund Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY The End of the World: Contemporary Visions of the Apocalypse, The New York Museum of Contemporary Art, NY Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Homage to Arthur Dove, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY Six Painters, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY Twenty New York Painters, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA 74th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Abstract Painting, Women’s Caucus, NY Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Spoleto Choice, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC From Women’s Eyes, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Theodoran, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Three If By Air, Obelisk Gallery, Boston, MA Betty Parsons Collection, Finch College, New York, NY SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria California Palace of the Legion of Honor (Achenbach Foundation), San Francisco, CA Detroit Art Institute, Detroit, MI Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Gemeentsmuseum of the Hague, The Hague, Netherlands (permanent installation) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Houston Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Mount Holyoke...

Jene Highstein Untitled, 1982 Pastel and Chalk on Paper Hand signed and dated by artist on the front 32 × 40 inches Frame included Original hand signed pastel and chalk drawing, with...

Paul Pagk Untitled Geometric Abstraction, 1989 Gouache and watercolor on paper Signed, dated and inscribed "A Jacqueline". Frame included Excellent unique work on paper by contempora...

Michael Heizer III-8 (two unique works), 1983 Monoprint on two individual sheets of white handmade TGL paper, hand colored with colored pencils, paint sticks, and liquid and spray ac...

*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 5% IMPORT DUTY ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE Sklye by Sam Francis (1923-1994) Acrylic on paper 14.6 x 10.2 cm (5 ³/₄ x 4 inches) Signed, Sam Francis an...

Hannelore Baron Untitled (C82-142), 1982 Signed and dated on the reverse Mixed media collage Sheet 12 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches Provenance: Manny Silverman ...

Basket Case, 1986 Ballpoint pen on paper 11 x 8-1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Signed and dated, lower margin At the heart of Bousfield's work lies a lyrical celebration of color and tact...

Maker’s Prayer, 1986 Ballpoint pen on paper 11 x 8-1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Signed, titled, and dated, lower margin At the heart of Bousfield's work lies a lyrical celebration of co...

Whirlwind, 1989 Graphite on paper 11 x 8-1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Signed and titled, lower margin At the heart of Bousfield's work lies a lyrical celebration of color and tactile se...

Crystal Ball, 1989 Graphite on paper 11 x 8-1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) Signed, titled, and dated, verso At the heart of Bousfield's work lies a lyrical celebration of color and tactil...

This refined ink on paper work was realized by the renowned American artist Alexander Markovich circa 1985, which the scholar Svetlana Rakic called "The most dispersed and energy-cha...

James O. Clark, American sculptor, art educator. Recipient Sculpture award, Creative Artists Public Service, 1978, award for sculpture, National Endowment for Arts, 1982, Graphics award, 1983; fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1989; grantee, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, 1995, New York Counsel on Arts. Member selection committee Islip (New York ) Museum, 2002; Member of American Abstract Artist (associate; active 1999—2003). ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2015 ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, CA 2011 RHV Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY 2010 Mariboe Gallery, Hightstown, NJ 2009 Lesley Heller Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1998-9 “Tulips, Hysteria, Coordinating”, Nicholas Davies, New York, NY 1997 “James O. Clark”, Ohio University, Athens, OH 1994 The College of Saint Rose Art Gallery, Albany, NY 1991 Max Protetch Gallery, New York, NY 1990 James...

Jay Rosenblum Polarity #9, 1981 Acrylic on Paper painting 6 × 9 1/2 inches Pencil signed and titled on the front Unique work Unframed ]This gem of a work is an acrylic painting on p...

JAY MILDER Untitled, ca. 1987 Gouache on Paper hand signed in pencil, lower left. Image is 9 square inches; framed it's 16 square inches Frame included: held in the original vintage frame A protege of Hans Hofmann, Milder also studied Jewish mysticism and Kaballah. Poignant framed color gouache painting on paper by second generation Abstract Expressionist painter Jay Milder, a former student of Hans Hofmann, whose work has been greatly informed by his background and interest in Jewish mysticism and Kaballah. Most recently, Milder had been represented by the Lohin Geduld Gallery in Manhattan and Eric Firestone. The visible sheet measures approximately 9 square inches. Framed, the work measures 16 square inches. Artist's official biography: JAY MILDER Born 1934 in Omaha, Nebraska, Jay Milder became a noted abstract painter in the New York art scene in 1958 when he, Bob Thompson, and Red Grooms founded City Gallery. They were all influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but closer to Willem De Kooning than Jackson Pollock because all three were committed to figurative work. Milder was originally shown at The Allan Stone Gallery and then when Martha Jackson took over as Milder’s dealer, her client, Walter Chrysler...

Mountain and Sky, Deer Island, Maine Watercolor on paper, 1985 Signed in ink lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Done while at their summer home in Deer Island, Main...

Nickle Drawing Ink and watercolor on laid paper, 1982 Signed and dated lower right in ink The title references a comment that her husband, David Smith, made regarding her drawings. He said that they were only worth a nickle and the name stuck even thought her works are highly prized. The dating of this work reflects the date inscribed on the watercolor. The style and black ink lines with dots terminating the line is a compositional device the artist used in the 1950's. Condition: Very fine/excellent 4 old hinge residue in the corners verso from previous matting Sheet/image size: 7 1/2 x 4 7/8 inches Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994) Painter, sculptor, art writer, and poet, Dorothy Dehner explored abstraction, cubism, realism and surrealism during her artistic journey. Early in her career she was known for painting and for large-cast metal sculptures, but in the 1950s and 1960s, turned increasingly to wood cut into hard-edge geometric shapes. From 1950, she lived primarily in New York City. Dorothy Dehner was born in 1901 in Cleveland, Ohio, but, as a teenager in 1916, moved to Pasadena, California when her parents died. Her artistic interests were initially in acting. She majored in drama at UCLA for the school year of 1922-1923, then moved to New York City to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. After travel to Europe in France, Italy and Switzerland in 1925, where she saw Cubist and Fauve paintings as well as the great art of the ages, Dehner entered the Art Students League to study sculpture, but switched to painting because she felt the former was bound in academic formula. She studied drawing with Kimon Nicolaides and painting with Kenneth Hayes Miller. In 1929, she studied painting with Jan Matulka. Meeting artist John Graham in that year, he introduced her to Milton Avery, Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky. She would also take art courses years later at Skidmore College in 1951. Dehner married sculptor David Smith in 1927. She was evidently very helpful in his artistic growth, but friction would develop because Smith allegedly saw his wife as artistic competition. Although she painted and drew Cubist and Surrealist works during their marriage, and realistic ones of life on their Bolton Landing, New York farm during the period 1941 to 1944, Dehner would essentially put her exhibition life on hold until their divorce in 1952. Meanwhile, they traveled to Europe in 1935. She later wrote about Smith, as well as painter John Graham and Jan Matulka, her teacher. Although she had shown in the 1946 Audubon Artists exhibition, winning first prize in drawing, and in the Whitney Annual of 1951, it was the year of her divorce, 1952, that Dehner had her first one-person exhibition at the Rose Fried Gallery...

Signed lower right, 'Barbara Johnson' (American, 1927-2021) and titled, lower left, 'Oberon Series 1'. Exhibited: Carmel Art Association, circa 1995 (accompanied by original label) ...

One side signed. Lower right corner slightly bent. Measures 29x20. Frameless. Ignacio Gil Sala, was a painter, bohemian character, adventurous and intrepid traveler who knew how to ...

KENNETH NOLAND Untitled, for Trustees of the Honolulu Museum of Art, 1984 Mixed Media collage with silver and colored foil on board. Signed on verso (back) with personal inscription. "for Twig and Laila" (Trustees of the Honolulu Museum of Art), Deaccessioned from the Honolulu Museum of Art Collection Inscription done in black marker and reads: "A Little Exercise For Twig and Laila With Thanks For A Wonderful 3 Days At ' Cedar House' On The 'Big Island'... 1 Sept 1984 Honolulu Hawaii." Frame included Measurements Framed: 12.5" x 12.5" x .3" Artwork: 8.75" x 8.75" This reflective Chevron collage was de-accessioned by the Honolulu Museum of Art. In 2018, it was exhibited in the show "On Black Mountain: The Bauhaus Legacy in America", April 5, 2019-April 27, 2019 at the Sager Braudis Gallery in Columbia, Missouri, and is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue. Unique signed and dedicated mixed media collage with silver and colored foil on board by the important Color Field painter Kenneth Noland. It's quite a dazzling work, combining color field, geometric abstraction with Op Art, as the work changes appearance and color with the reflected and refracted light. - sometimes appearing light; sometimes darker. See the photos -- there's a light one and a darker one - and they both depict the same work. What's so impressive is that this work literally changes color depending on how the light reflects against it. The artist wrote a personal and heartfelt inscription on the verso to "Twig and Laila". (Twig (sic), which the artist deliberately misspells, is Thurston Twigg Smith, former publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser, who was married to New York philanthropist Laila Twigg Smith. Laila had lived in Hawaii since 1970, where she and her husband had put together a substantial collection of contemporary art. Unfortunately, the two divorced in 1996 and soon after she returned to New York. Two years later, in 1998, Laila died of liver failure at the young age of only 53. Laila was a major philanthropist and art collector who moved from Manhattan to Hawaii. She was a board member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and a major donor the Honolulu Museum in Hawaii. Laila donated the present Ken Noland...

Katherine Porter Country Music (Nashville is an Enigma), 1986 Mixed media; colored pencil, gouache, and graphite on paper, uniquely signed and inscribed with Nashville dateline Hand ...

Vibrant abstract landscape watercolor titled "Sierra Country" by Erle Loran (American, 1905-1999), 1984. Titled, signed, and dated on verso. Presented in a painted metal frame, without glass. Image, 23"H x 31"L. Measures: 30"H x 37"W. Erle Loran was a modernist of urban and coastal views and geometric painting. Erle Loran was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art under the direction of Cameron Booth...

Katherine Porter Tempest, 1989 Oil painting on gessoed India rag paper with deckled edges 29 1/4 × 25 inches signed and dated in graphite on the lower front Unframed (accompanied by ...

Signed lower left, 'Marianne K. Brown' (American, 20th century); additionally signed, verso, with certification of authenticity and dated 1987. Brown has taught watercolor and des...

Robert Petersen After A Rain #2, 1987 Collage on Paper: Pencil, Oil, Acrylic and Cloth Hand signed, dated and titled on lower front with Castelli Graphics label on the back Frame Inc...

Mark di Suvero Yayoi's Guitar, 1980 Ink wash drawing Signed and titled in red ink on the front Frame included (held in original vintage frame) Unique 1980 drawing by sculptor Mark di...

Walasse Ting 丁雄泉 CAT (original drawing), 1985 Original Ink and Marker on offset lithograph held in hardback monograph Hand signed and inscribed by the artist This is an absolutely gorgeous drawing of a cat by the pioneering Chinese-American-European artist Walasse Ting, who famously collaborated with Sam Francis and many other Ab Ex, Pop and COBRA artists. (He was the brainchild behind the legendary One Cent Life portfolio). Ting was also, famously, a cat lover, and is renowned for his expressive, colorful and gorgeous drawings of cats...

James Rosati Untitled Geometric Abstraction, 1982 Two-sided Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Paper drawing Hand signed and dated on lower right front 14 1/2 × 13 1/2 inches This is a un...

Margie Hughto Orchid & Red, 1983 Dyed Handmade paper Hand signed and dated by the artist on the lower right front. Titled on the back. Unique Frame Inclu...

Margie Hughto Blue Blossom, 1983 Dyed Handmade paper Hand signed and dated by the artist on the lower right front. Titled on the back. Frame Included in ...

William Tucker Study for Gymnast IV (De-Accessioned from the High Museum of Art, Atlanta), 1985 Oil Stick on Paper Hand signed by the artist on the front Original vintage frame included This study by the modern British sculptor, William Tucker, was done of the bronze sculpture 'Gymnast IV.' The sculpture is currently part of the Tate Galleries Collection in England. It was one of a series of four that the artist completed in 1983. Tucker, along with Isaac Witkin...

The Lovers "The Eyes Have It" Figurative Abstract Watercolor and Pencil on Paper A whimsical figurative painting by California-based artist Ricardo de Silva (Brazilian, 20th Century...

Anthony Caro Nude (signed, dedicated & inscribed to Clement Greenberg), 1986 Charcoal on Paper Hand-signed by artist, The drawing is inscribed, "To Clem, much love, from Tony" and signed "A. Caro 1986 July." 38 × 24 inches Unframed This original drawing was acquired from the collection of the influential critic Clement Greenberg - one of the greatest supporters of British artist Anthony Caro, whose students and colleagues at St. Martin School of Art included the distinguished sculptors William Tucker and Isaac Witkin...

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...

"The Mainvjine of Farsplintoc" is an original oil pastel drawing on paper by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. This piece features a variety of abstract marks...

"I Don't Know Either" is an original oil pastel drawing on canvas board by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. It depicts multiple abstracted faces. 40...

-This is an abstract color pencil drawing by American artist Alan Daniel Saret (born in 1944) titled "Scratch Entering, Amazed" done on paper from 1983. It measures 28.5" x 35" and c...

Pink, sky blue, yellow, and black abstract modern figurative drawing by Houston, TX artist Charles Pebworth. The drawing depicts four nude women behind what appears to be windows. Si...

Red with Black, White and Orange - Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper A bright abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). ...

John Peters 1927-2019 "Brown DNA" 1980s Marker on paper 8"x10" brown wood frame float mount over linen mat 11"x12.75 Unsigned, came from a portfolio of the artist's work

Bold Abstract and Figurative Composition in Blue and red Acrylic on Paper Bright and colorful abstracted figural painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Bra...

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...