While Sirak Melkonian’s works are not new to auction, his importance as an artist has perhaps, until more recently, been overlooked. A retrospective of his art spanning seven decades was held in Iran in 2014 which went a considerable way in garnering deserved recognition of his artistic talents. However, the full potential of his significance as an artist is yet to be reached.  

We are therefore especially honoured to present the largest work on canvas by the artist to come to auction, significantly in the year that he celebrates his 90th birthday.

Melkonian has a mastery of line and form; his works became progressively more abstract early on in his career and as his oeuvre has matured, he has maintained a ‘signature style’ of topographical abstraction; networks of lines and surfaces. His palettes are muted and earthy, lending further to the geological visual implications. His attention to line and manipulation of paint textures takes centre stage in his canvases. The result illustrates both a physical and cerebral landscape for the audience - grounding in a linearity that serves to anchor views but also disorienting, with no trace of locale.

He gained national recognition in 1957, winning a prize at the Contemporary Iranian Artist Exhibition of the Iran American Society. This was followed by the Imperial Court Prize at the Tehran Biennale in 1958 and first prize at the Paris Biennale in 1959. The artist has exhibited at the Grand Palais and the Salon De Montrouge in Paris, as well as Washington International.

The artist lives and works in Toronto.