Onik Sahakian

Onik Sahakian was born on December 4, 1936, in Tehran, then the capital of the Persian Empire, the son of an Armenian-Russian family who took refuge there after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. At a very young age, he began his artistic education, especially in the areas of music and dance receiving a scholarship to attend the Persian Miniature Painting Course at the famous Honarestan Zibaé Keshwar (Tehran Institute of Fine Arts). In 1953 he traveled to the Soviet Union, with the aim of continuing his study of ballet and developing his artistic training. When he returns to Iran, he works as a consultant at the Ministry of Culture for around two years and is invited to join Madame Yelena Avetisian's dance studio. He was also invited to the newly created National Ballet of Iran, directed by William Dollar, during 1956. But, that same year, he left for the USA to study Political Science, attending classes only for one academic year, after which definitely embarks on an artistic career. He entered the Chouniard Art School in Los Angeles, California, where he completed his Master's degree in 1964. At the same time, he developed his knowledge of the techniques of classical painters, receiving private lessons from several renowned Masters. It is initially influenced by escola francesa, then by the Italian and, in a third phase, by the Impressionists. In 1958 he met personally Salvador From there, beginning a relationship of friendship and direct collaboration that would last nineteen years. Fascinated by the Master's work, he became his disciple, and Daline's surrealism would certainly be his greatest influence. In 1969, he moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he founded his own art and jewelry design consultancy company: “Onik Designs Ltd.”. The painting and jewelry exhibition that he presented in 1971 at the Rockefeller Center, under the theme “The Picture and the Jewel of the Month” and lasting one year, will give him wide recognition among the public and in the main pages of the most important New York newspapers and magazines. In 1976 he was appointed Art Consultant at the Niavran Cultural Center in Tehran where he worked directly with Haydeh Changizian, prima ballerina from Iran. He settled in Portugal in 1987, deciding to suspend his artistic activities, which he would however resume due to influence and impulse. in Ana Maria Botelho, with whom he contacted for the first time in 1990. Botelho's talent Onik Sahakian It is multifaceted, expressing itself through painting, jewelry (many of the jewelry worn by Dali and Gala are his own), sculpture, scenography and ballet wardrobe. Throughout his career, he has exhibited all over the world, especially on the American and European continents, having presented more than 40 exhibitions. ver menos