During the first week of March, newscasts and press worldwide reported the extraordinary discovery of Arthur Pinajian, an important artist whose life's work had been relegated to the garbage, but was rescued just in time. On ABC's "Good Morning America" it was featured as "the unlikely discovery that has rocked the art world." http://gma.yahoo.com/video/gma-york-man-finds-30-080000337.html Hundreds of other news outlets around the globe ran the story, including a major piece by The New York Times   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/arts/design/saved-from-obscurity-arthur-pinajians-paintings-shown-in-gallery.html

            To accommodate both the public and art collectors Lost and Found: The Pinajian Discovery, has been extended to run until April 13th at Studio Vendome on the ground floor of Phillip Johnson's landmark Urban Glass House at 330 Spring Street in SoHo.  Hours are 11 AM to 6:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday and Thursdays until 9:00 PM.

            Art historians nationwide are still expressing astonishment that works of such caliber could have remained completely unknown. Major private collectors have already purchased the paintings and at least six are headed to museums. Art historian Peter Hastings Falk, curator of the collection, explains that the artist was a hermit his entire life. Arthur Pinajian life's work had been packed tightly into a garage since he died in 1999 at the age of 85.  Now his much-lauded abstract landscapes in Lost and Found are being showcased in New York for the first time.  Falk notes that this is the first in a series of exhibitions being launched by his company, Rediscovered Masters, which is dedicated to presenting excellent late career artists and/or those have passed on and whose achievements have been forgotten or overlooked. The exhibition of 50 paintings is presented by Rediscovered Masters and runs from Tuesday March 18 and runs through Saturday April 13th. The exhibition opens Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 am-6:00 pm. On Thursdays the exhibition will stay open until 9:00 pm.

            After Pinajian's death in 1999, five decades of accumulated artwork were found stacked up in the one-car garage and attic of the Bellport, Long Island, cottage he shared with his sister. He had left instructions for his collection to be discarded in the town dump. At the last moment an artist cousin refused to let the garbage truck haul away the paintings. Instead, Professor William Innes Homer [1929-2012], then dean of American art historians, was asked to examine the life's work of the unknown artist and was stunned by what he found: a large body of extraordinary abstract landscape and figurative paintings by a highly gifted artist who was completely unknown in his lifetime. Homer urged Falk to head the project.  Soon a team of art historians was conducting research into the life and art of Arthur Pinajian.

            As a boy growing up in an Armenian community in West Hoboken, N.J., Pinajian was a completely self-trained cartoonist. During the Great Depression he became one of the pioneers in a new medium: the comic book. In 1940 he created "Madam Fatal," the first cross-dressing superhero, for Crack Comics. After World War II, he enrolled at the Art Students League in Woodstock, N.Y. Although he knew a number of the New York Abstract Expressionists, such as Franz Kline and Philip Guston, he was largely reclusive. For 22 years his life revolved around Woodstock while he passionately pursued his painting.  His admirable poetic color combinations are linked to the tonalities of his better-known fellow Armenian, Arshile Gorky [ca.1904-1948]. Late in life, he moved with his sister to Bellport. There, in a tiny bedroom-studio he strived for visual and spiritual conclusions regarding flatness and color that parallel the goals of the Abstract Expressionists.   The exhibition is accompanied by a 128-page hardcover book with essays by art historians Falk,

Richard J. Boyle, and the late William Innes Homer; art critic John Perreault; conservator Jonathan Sherman; bestselling author Lawrence E. Joseph, owner of the collection; and, Pinajian's artist-cousin, Peter Najarian. The collective essays present one of the most compelling discoveries in the history of 20th-century American art. Dr. Homer writes: "Even though Pinajian was a creative force to be reckoned with, during his lifetime he rarely exhibited or sold his paintings. Instead, he pursued his goals in isolation with the single-minded focus of a Gauguin or Cézanne, refusing to give up in the face of public indifference. In his later years he could be compared to a lone researcher in a laboratory pursuing knowledge for its own sake. His exhaustive diaries and art notes make it clear that he dedicated all of his days to his art. He was passionate and unequivocally committed."

AN INTRIGUING LITERARY CONNECTION

It is interesting to note the astonishing resemblance between Pinajian and the hero in Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, a 1987 novel about an eccentric painter. Both Pinajian and Karabekian, a.k.a. Bluebeard, were Armenian-Americans, raised by parents who survived the 1915 Turkish genocide of approximately one million men, women and children who then made their way to the United States where they raised their families during the Great Depression. Both men then served with the United States Army during World War II in the European theater, each earning a host of ribbons and medals, including the Bronze Star. After the war, both abandoned their careers as illustrators for higher artistic pursuits, joined the Art Students League in New York, and hung out with the Abstract Expressionists at the Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village. Both eventually moved to Long Island's East End near the ocean, where they kept their paintings tightly locked away in a garage.

 "Ultimately Pinajian's work reflects the soul of a flawed, yet brilliant, artistic genius. When he hits the mark, especially in his abstractions, he can be ranked among the best artists of his era . . . His life is, above all, a model for those who feel that they must follow their calling despite a lack of public acceptance," concluded Dr. Homer.

ABOUT PETER HASTINGS FALK AND REDISCOVERED MASTERS

"Call me the Peter Finch of the art world," says Peter Hastings Falk, referring to the actor's memorable rant "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" in the film Network.  "I'm angry that art history and the art market have proven to be ruthlessly forgetful.  With Rediscovered Masters my mission is to illuminate excellent late career artists and those deceased who, for various reasons, have not expanded or sustained the exposure they deserve. No one embodies this more than Arthur Pinajian."

According to Falk, Rediscovered Masters will provide a singular and valuable service for exhibition planners, connecting museum curators, gallerists, historians and critics with important, gifted artists about whom tastemakers might not be aware. Admission is by invitation only. Once an artist is admitted they are represented online with a thematic exhibition, a critical biography and other essays. Artists are identified through an Art Advisory Board composed of a cadre of museum directors and curators, art gallery owners, and other art professionals. The Senior Advisor is Peter Selz, former Curator of Paintings at The Museum of Modern Art and founder of the Berkeley Art Museum.

Opening eyes while fighting ageism, Rediscovered Masters expands upon Falk's 37 years of identifying and promoting excellent late-career artists and artist estate collections.  Falk is author and publisher of what has long been regarded as the most exhaustive biographical dictionary on American art, Who Was Who in American Art, a three-volume opus that won the Wittenborn Award for the Best Art Reference Book published in North America, awarded by the Art Libraries Society. Falk also pioneered the documentation of art auction prices with his massive annual Art Price Index International and that data is now online at Artprice.com, the leader in art market information.

For more information visit www.rediscoveredmasters.com or phone 203-245-2246.