Jirayr Zorthian
Encyclopedia
Jirayr Zorthian was an American
artist.
of Armenian
parents, Zorthian escaped through Europe, with the remnants of his family after two waves of political massacres, and arrived in New Haven, Connecticut
, in 1923. He earned a Master of Fine Arts
at Yale University
and studied art in Italy
in the 1930s. Returning to the United States
during the Great Depression
, he painted several massive murals, including 11 for the Tennessee State Capitol
in 1938 which earned him the honorary title of "Colonel
". In 1940, he painted the mural at the United States Post Office
in St. Johnsville, New York
titled "Early St. Johnsville Pioneers."
, he served stateside in army intelligence
and painted what he came to consider his masterpiece—a mural he titled The Phantasmagoria of Military Intelligence Training. His first marriage, to shaving cream heiress Betsy Williams, ended in divorce but earned him the first acres of the Altadena ranch where he had lived from 1945 until his death.
winning physicist. They met at a party where Feynman played bongo
s: Zorthian removed his shirt and made funny designs on his own chest with available materials. Zorthian and Feynman's attempts to teach each other physics and art respectively are described in Feynman's autobiography
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
.
, a rustic latter-day Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
or an ongoing work of performance art, died on January 6, 2004 of congestive heart failure
. The nonagenarian’s paintings, primarily of nude women that he said expressed "every man’s fantasy," sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
But Zorthian was perhaps better known in Southern California
art circles for his free-form lifestyle than for his prodigious art. Each spring during the last decade of his life he threw a primavera birthday party, dubbing himself Zor-Bacchus, wearing a toga over long red underwear, and nibbling grapes from the hands of nude, garlanded nymphs (many of which were his artist models). Zorthian joined the nymphs in dancing to the pipes of a cavorting Pan
garbed in furry goat leggings. Alcohol flowed freely and a roasted pig fed hundreds of guests who could include scientists, movie stars, internationally known artists, writers and musicians and ordinary people.
The diminutive Armenian-American
was friends with jazzman Charlie Parker
, artist Andy Warhol
and Nobel
-winning physicist Richard Feynman
.
The ranch served as a haven of bohemian life and a backdrop for items of Zorthian’s artistic expression—salvaged wood, bed springs, rusted vehicles, broken concrete, beer bottles, old shoes and other junk he could recycle into various sculptures and architecture. Zorthian called the ranch The Center for Research and Development with an Emphasis on Aesthetics, and fashioned rental houses out of discarded items including telephone poles and railroad ties. He also built rock walls, towers, inlaid bridges and walkways. He painted in a studio and bred horses for his horse ring.
Zorthian and his wife, Dabney (March 21, 1933 - May 10, 2006), lived in a small pseudo-brick house on the ranch, well-loved by friends as welcoming although very cluttered. The couple often preferred to sleep outdoors. They slaughtered their own livestock and made their own sausage, milked their own goats and made cheese, raised their own vegetables and gathered eggs from their chickens. As a young immigrant, Zorthian had been startled by how wasteful Americans seemed and vowed to recycle everything he could and to create his own self-sufficient environment, a trait he share with rival/fellow castle-builder Michael Rubel
.
Proudly, Zorthian offered his own down-to-earth appraisal of his art ranch for the Los Angeles Times
in 1990: This entire property has sort of been sculpted with a skip-loader. I have 40 more years of work. I don’t have time to die.... A lot of people my age have given up being curious or vital. Can you imagine me in a retirement home playing shuffleboard?
Zorthian was equally at home attending posh art events in a tuxedo as in digging through restaurant trash cans for recyclable objects. He chaired the Pasadena Art Fair in 1954 and 1955 and staged a show of his work at what was then the Pasadena Art Museum in 1953.
Ernest M. Saenz' recalls his meetings with Jerry: "A pig's balls are more beautiful than a man's; so much more beautiful that a pig can display them with pride: not like us men that have to hide them with drawls and pants. That's why I paint them, pig balls and naked women, they are the only two things that have gained the public's approval for open display!" my private art teacher Col. J. Zorthian in a conversation relating on composition - 1979
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist.
Early life
Born April 14, 1911, in Khutaya, Western Anatolia, TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
of Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
parents, Zorthian escaped through Europe, with the remnants of his family after two waves of political massacres, and arrived in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, in 1923. He earned a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and studied art in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in the 1930s. Returning to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, he painted several massive murals, including 11 for the Tennessee State Capitol
Tennessee State Capitol
The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the home of the Tennessee legislature, the location of the governor's office, and a National Historic Landmark. Designed by architect William Strickland, it is one of Nashville's most prominent examples of Greek Revival architecture...
in 1938 which earned him the honorary title of "Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
". In 1940, he painted the mural at the United States Post Office
United States Post Office (St. Johnsville, New York)
US Post Office-St. Johnsville is a historic post office building located at St. Johnsville in Montgomery County, New York, United States. It was built in 1936, and is one of a number of post offices in New York State designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department...
in St. Johnsville, New York
St. Johnsville, New York
St. Johnsville is the name of two places in Montgomery County, New York:*St. Johnsville , New York*St. Johnsville , New York...
titled "Early St. Johnsville Pioneers."
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he served stateside in army intelligence
Military Intelligence Corps (United States Army)
In the United States Armed Forces, Military Intelligence refers specifically to the intelligence components of the United States Army...
and painted what he came to consider his masterpiece—a mural he titled The Phantasmagoria of Military Intelligence Training. His first marriage, to shaving cream heiress Betsy Williams, ended in divorce but earned him the first acres of the Altadena ranch where he had lived from 1945 until his death.
Friendship with Richard Feynman
Zorthian is known among physicists for his friendship with Richard Phillips Feynman, Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning physicist. They met at a party where Feynman played bongo
Bongo
Bongo may refer to:In nature:*Bongo , a species of forest antelope from AfricaIn geography:*Bongo Country, the name of several places in Africa*Bongo , Ivory CoastIn entertainment:...
s: Zorthian removed his shirt and made funny designs on his own chest with available materials. Zorthian and Feynman's attempts to teach each other physics and art respectively are described in Feynman's autobiography
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life...
.
Zorthian's work
Zorthian, who earned his own kaleidoscopic descriptives as the last bohemianBohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
, a rustic latter-day Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
or an ongoing work of performance art, died on January 6, 2004 of congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
. The nonagenarian’s paintings, primarily of nude women that he said expressed "every man’s fantasy," sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
For Zorthian... the beautiful human body was ... not merely an object but a potent means of communication for any and all ideas, as well as a source of inspiration and aesthetic delight
In a very real sense, his nudes are autobiographical, telling more about him than his subjects.
But Zorthian was perhaps better known in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
art circles for his free-form lifestyle than for his prodigious art. Each spring during the last decade of his life he threw a primavera birthday party, dubbing himself Zor-Bacchus, wearing a toga over long red underwear, and nibbling grapes from the hands of nude, garlanded nymphs (many of which were his artist models). Zorthian joined the nymphs in dancing to the pipes of a cavorting Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
garbed in furry goat leggings. Alcohol flowed freely and a roasted pig fed hundreds of guests who could include scientists, movie stars, internationally known artists, writers and musicians and ordinary people.
The diminutive Armenian-American
Armenian-American
Armenian Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Armenia. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 respondents indicated either full or partial Armenian ancestry...
was friends with jazzman Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, artist Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and Nobel
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning physicist Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
.
The ranch served as a haven of bohemian life and a backdrop for items of Zorthian’s artistic expression—salvaged wood, bed springs, rusted vehicles, broken concrete, beer bottles, old shoes and other junk he could recycle into various sculptures and architecture. Zorthian called the ranch The Center for Research and Development with an Emphasis on Aesthetics, and fashioned rental houses out of discarded items including telephone poles and railroad ties. He also built rock walls, towers, inlaid bridges and walkways. He painted in a studio and bred horses for his horse ring.
Zorthian and his wife, Dabney (March 21, 1933 - May 10, 2006), lived in a small pseudo-brick house on the ranch, well-loved by friends as welcoming although very cluttered. The couple often preferred to sleep outdoors. They slaughtered their own livestock and made their own sausage, milked their own goats and made cheese, raised their own vegetables and gathered eggs from their chickens. As a young immigrant, Zorthian had been startled by how wasteful Americans seemed and vowed to recycle everything he could and to create his own self-sufficient environment, a trait he share with rival/fellow castle-builder Michael Rubel
Rubel Castle
Rubel Castle was established in Glendora, California, by Michael Clarke Rubel . It has been called "a San Gabriel Valley version of Watts Towers.”...
.
Proudly, Zorthian offered his own down-to-earth appraisal of his art ranch for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
in 1990: This entire property has sort of been sculpted with a skip-loader. I have 40 more years of work. I don’t have time to die.... A lot of people my age have given up being curious or vital. Can you imagine me in a retirement home playing shuffleboard?
Zorthian was equally at home attending posh art events in a tuxedo as in digging through restaurant trash cans for recyclable objects. He chaired the Pasadena Art Fair in 1954 and 1955 and staged a show of his work at what was then the Pasadena Art Museum in 1953.
Ernest M. Saenz' recalls his meetings with Jerry: "A pig's balls are more beautiful than a man's; so much more beautiful that a pig can display them with pride: not like us men that have to hide them with drawls and pants. That's why I paint them, pig balls and naked women, they are the only two things that have gained the public's approval for open display!" my private art teacher Col. J. Zorthian in a conversation relating on composition - 1979