ALMA to host “The Art of Ranzar” retrospective show

PanARMENIAN.Net - Beginning Sunday, Nov 11, Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) will feature a retrospective show of the art of "Ranzar" (Fred Elezarian Randolph), an Armenian-American artist of the mid-20th century.

The exhibition will run until January 31, 2013.

Fred Elezarian Randolph was born in Isfahan, Iran in 1920 and came to the U.S. at the age of 14 with his mother. He attended Rindge Technical School in Cambridge and also took private art lessons. Later he served in the Army during WWII in Rhineland-Central Europe, where he was a Combat Infantryman and also did artwork for the Stars and Stripes News Print. Moving to New Jersey in 1956, he worked as a photoengraver until he retired. Ranzar's art captures both the traditional art of the Near East and American popular forms, straddling two worlds, painting images of his early life in Iran from memory. His works were exhibited in New York City during the 1960s. The artist was married to Sima Najarian from Watertown for 45 years and she was a model in many of his paintings.

Ranzar was an "amateur" but he was highly regarded in the Armenian community while living in New Jersey. His paintings are currently displayed on the altars of St. Stephens Church in Watertown and St. Vartanantz in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Many other religious paintings are hung in other churches in the Northeast.