TEHRAN- A retrospective of the life and works of Iranian-Armenian-American artist Marcos Grigorian will be held at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA). 

The exhibition will open on Monday commemorate the artist's 100th birthday anniversary, Mehr reported on Friday. 

The exhibition will showcase a carefully curated selection of Grigorian's works from five significant phases of his career, viewed through an artistic historical lens. It will feature a collection of expressionistic paintings, as well as clay and straw artworks, arranged with a scholarly approach.

The retrospective will run until January 12.

Marcos Grigorian (1925–2007) was an impactful artist and gallery owner, celebrated as a pioneer of modern Iranian art. Born in Kropotkin, Russia, to an Armenian family fleeing massacre, he moved to Iran in 1930, where he later opened the Apadana gallery in Tehran in 1949. Grigorian studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, graduating in 1954, and subsequently established the influential Galerie Esthétique in Tehran. He was instrumental in organizing the first Tehran Biennial in 1958 and was a dedicated educator at the Fine Arts Academy.

In the 1960s, he relocated to the United States, establishing Universal Galleries in Minneapolis. Grigorian also co-founded the Group of Free Painters and Sculptors in Tehran. In his later years, he settled in Yerevan, Armenia, where he created the Museum of the Middle East and donated thousands of artworks. His legacy was marred by tragedy when he was fatally assaulted in 2007.

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