Leon Arthur Tutundjian Biography
Leon Arthur Tutundjian (1906-1968) was an Armenian artist, born in the former Ottoman Empire (now Türkiye). Tutundjian's youth was spent moving from city to city, seeking refuge from the violence that surrounded him. In Constantinople he studied at the School of Fine Arts, then was sent to an orphanage in Greece. He was then accepted into a school in Venice and eventually settled in Paris, where he became an accomplished violinist and established himself as a respected painter. Tutundjian has experimented with various styles throughout his artistic career, starting with tachism, the spontaneous and expressive use of broad brushstrokes, smudges, drips, stains, and splashes of color. Tutundjian also helped define a style known as Concrete Art, a non-figurative style that promoted the use of only planes and colors. Eventually his output veered towards Surrealism and he became famous as an artist of that genre. The disorder and horror of his childhood are evident in his works. In his early works he fought the chaos of his experience, transforming it with a balanced artistic vision into orderly and pure works. In his surrealist pieces, viewers are reminded of the horrors of mass murder through haunting images including enigmatic masks, disjointed hands and heads, and desolate landscapes that dominate his works.
