Bidspirit auction | Mher Abeghyan (Armenian, 1909 –

Mher Abeghyan (Armenian, 1909 – 1994) - Mher Abeghyan (Armenian, 1909 – 1994), tempera on paper laid on cardboard, signed l. r., 70 x 102,5 cm. Notes Mher Abeghyan was one of the most prominent figures of 20th-century Armenian painting, awarded the title of People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1960. His artistic education spanned several major centers of Soviet art: he studied at the Yerevan Fine Arts and Industrial Technical School (1922–1927), the Moscow Higher Art and Technical Institute (1927–1930), and the Leningrad Institute of Proletarian Art (1930–1931), where he trained under notable masters including Sergey Gerasimov, Nadezhda Udaltsova, and Alexander Osmyorkin. In addition to his painting practice, Abeghyan played an important role in Armenian cultural life. He taught at the Yerevan State Institute of Fine Arts and served as Chairman of the Union of Artists of Armenia during two periods (1939–1945 and 1967–1968). Abeghyan was also an accomplished illustrator, contributing to significant literary works such as the Armenian epic David of Sasun, as well as texts by Hovhannes Tumanyan, Hovhannes Shiraz, Vakhtang Ananyan, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. His illustrations for Tumanyan’s Akhtamar are particularly noted. His works were exhibited extensively across the Soviet Union and internationally, including in London, Brussels, Dresden, and New York. Today, his paintings are held in major institutional collections, including the National Gallery of Armenia, and a dedicated Mher Abeghyan Museum was established in Echmiadzin in 1990.