On May 19 through June 19, the St. Leon Armenian Cathedral of Zorayan Museum in Burbank, California will host Arthur Pinajian’s exhibition, Master of Abstraction Discovered.

The exhibit will feature 128 canvasses, created by the artist throughout his life.

Pinajian, the son of Genocide survivors, was a native of Union City, New Jersey. He started as a cartoonist in the 1930s and found considerable success fashioning comic strips for Quality, Marvel, and Centaur Comics. After World War II, during which he earned the Bronze Star for valor, he rejected commercial art, attended the Art Students League in New York, and committed himself to the pursuit of serious painting. Prior to his many years in Bellport with Armen, he rented a studio in Woodstock, New York, and there and in West New York, New Jersey, he began to wrestle with the challenges of being a modern artist.

He drew and painted in obscurity until his death in 1999 at the age of 85. Sharing a modest one-story cottage in the village in Bellport, New York, with his sister, Pinajian depended on her totally for financial and moral support.