Missak Terzian

Lebanese-American artist, Missak Terzian, was born in 1949 to Armenian parents. The artist studied at Ecole d’Art Guvder in 1968 and graduated from London College of Printing in 1971. His paintings are part of many collections in the Middle East, namely Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, Europe, the United States of America, Canada and the Republic of China.

His works are on permanent display throughout Lebanon, at the Bank Audi head office Museum, the Armenian Catholicossate of Cilicia Museum, the Sursock Museum and the Museum of Bzommar.

He is a creative graphic designer, pre-press color specialist and printer by profession and an artist by vocation who held his first major art exhibition in 1984. Since then, the artist has participated in 80 exhibitions worldwide.

In the face of the atrocities of the 15-year Lebanese civil war, he fled the country with his family a few short months prior to its end. At the port of Beirut, a container filled with 104 of his paintings intended to be shipped to California burned before his eyes – laying the fruit of six years of hard work in ashes. The boat moved off while the beautiful city of Beirut was bombarded.

In April 1989, the artist was heartbroken as flashbacks of his canvasses painted with so much love and ardor haunted his soul for two decades. He had preciously kept transparencies, the living relics of his works disappeared forever as one day, he decided to go back in time and recreate those precious works.

Like a Phoenix reborn from its ashes, the artist brings back to life the paintings that stood sacred at heart. His exhibition baptized “Re-Birth” is the best witness of their revival.