Léon Arthur Tutundjian

About

Léon Arthur Tutundjian was an Armenian painter and graphic artist born in Amasya, Ottoman Empire, in 1905. He began painting at age 14, studied at the Istanbul School of Fine Arts, and fled the Armenian Genocide at 17, finding refuge in an Armenian monastery in Venice before arriving in Paris around 1924. In Paris, he worked in ceramics, befriended artists Ervand Kotchar and David Kakabadzé, and transitioned from figurative works and cubism to geometric abstraction by 1926, creating notable reliefs and contributing to the Concrete Art movement, earning recognition in avant-garde circles. His first solo exhibition in 1930 at Galerie des Editions Bonaparte was a success, followed by group and solo shows mainly in France. Tutundjian's style evolved significantly: from abstraction in the late 1920s, he shifted to surrealist figuration by 1932 after leaving Abstraction-Création, producing colorful works with diverse iconography reminiscent of Magritte and De Chirico. During World War II, he was mobilized, wounded, and supported his family through ceramics. Postwar, he focused on his art, producing prolific drawings and paintings. Despite pioneering abstraction biomorphique and influencing figures like Arp and Kandinsky, he died in relative obscurity in 1968, with rediscovery in the 1970s-80s via posthumous exhibitions.

Surrealist with phases in geometric abstraction, cubism, and Concrete Art