Ashot Zorian

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Ashot Zorian (Armenian: Աշոտ Զորյան; also known as Ashod Zorian, Ashot Zoryan, or Huseyin/Z Hussein Zorian) was an Armenian Egyptian painter and teacher. He was born in 1905 in Giresun, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and died on June 4, 1970, in Cairo, Egypt. He trained as a painter in Europe at the Armenian National School, Wiener Kunstschule in Vienna, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, and the French Academy in Rome, where he studied with Umberto Coromaldi.

Zorian’s early life was marked by upheaval. His father, Apig Zorian, was a lawyer who was killed during the Armenian genocide in 1915. He grew up with his sister in Şebinkarahisar, and his name was changed to Huseyin Zorian during that time. In the 1920s he joined the Armenian Yesayan Orphanage in Istanbul and earned a stipend to study in Europe.

In 1929 he moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where he exhibited his work and won a bronze medal at the 3rd Alexandria Salon in 1932. In 1941, after the bombing of British bases in World War II, he fled with his uncle to Cairo. His painting The Resurrection of Christ (1944) is in an Armenian Orthodox Church in Cairo.

Zorian taught art at Armenian schools in Alexandria and Cairo, and later gave private lessons from his Cairo studio. Notable students included Queen Farida of Egypt and the artist Edmond Kiraz. He created bright Fauvist paintings of people and scenes, such as The Armenian Folkloric Dance Ensemble (1966) and The Cotton Pickers (1968). After his death, his sisters helped arrange for many of his works to be donated to the National Gallery of Armenia. Today, his paintings are part of Armenia’s National Gallery collection.