Background
Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was born on September 11, 1891 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Bazhbeuk-Melikyans were indigenous people from Tbilisi.
ალექსანდრე ბაჟბეუქ-მელიქიანი
artist sculptor graphic designer
Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was born on September 11, 1891 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Bazhbeuk-Melikyans were indigenous people from Tbilisi.
In 1903, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan began his studies at the School of Art and Sculpture of the Caucasus Society for the Encouragement for the Fine Arts. Here he made the acquaintance of a fellow student, Lado Gudiashvili. In 1910, he travelled to Moscow to begin training in the studio of the artist V. N. Meshkov. The following year, he joined the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
In 1913, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, and spent the World War I years on the Odessa front.
He returned to Tbilisi in 1917, and began his own independent artistic career. In 1919, along with Lado Gudiashvili , he opened an exhibition of his works in Tbilisi.
Between 1922 and 1929 Bazhbeuk-Melikyan taught at the studio of Mose Toidze, following which he taught at the Georgian Academy of Arts till 1938.
In 1935, he held his first solo exhibition in Yerevan, Armenia. This attracted much attention among the Armenian intelligentsia, who were still unfamiliar with his work. The exhibition was a huge success.
But the same year, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan became friends with the nationalist poets Yegishe Charents and Titian Tabidze, which led to the attention of the NKVD. For this reason, in 1937, the newspaper "Dawn of the East" published an article naming him an enemy of the people. Bazhbeuk-Melikyan lived in fear of arrest. That did not come to pass, and when he painted his "Spanish guerrillas" in support of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, he was rehabilitated.
In the 1960s, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan made frequent trips to Yerevan, where he met, befriended and encouraged young Armenian artists, including Minas Avetissian.
Between 1964 and 1966, although in poor health, he continued to work. During his career, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan painted over two thousand canvases, but ruthlessly pruned them down to about a hundred.
Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan died on July 20, 1966 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
In 1935, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan became friends with the nationalist poets Yegishe Charents and Titian Tabidze, which led to the attention of the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs). In 1937, the newspaper "Dawn of the East" published an article naming him an enemy of the people. Bazhbeuk-Melikyan lived in fear of arrest. That did not come to pass, and when he painted his "Spanish guerrillas" in support of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, he was rehabilitated.
Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was a member of the Union of Artists of Georgia, but was was expelled from the union in 1937.
Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan was married twice. His first wife was Nectar, whom he met in 1919. The couple had a daughter Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, a painter.
His second wife was Lydia Meshkorudnikova. They had a daughter Zuleika and a son Vazgen, both were painters.