Karnig nalbandian biography definition

(1916-1989)

A biography of Eudora Welty makes brief mention of “Etcher” Karnig Nalbandian with whom the famous writer shared a farmhouse in the summer of 1941 at the Yaddo artists’ colony in Saratago Springs, New York.

References to the Armenian-American artist turn up in the archives of Historian Alfred de Grazia, who met him, living in poverty with his brother in Providence, Rhode Island, caring for their dying mother.

De Grazia loved his art but thought Nalbandian “a complete anarchist” who believed it would be “unthinkable” to work for anyone.

An interview with Nalbandian’s nephew for a oral history project reveals how he detested art-world politics, threw wild parties for jazz lovers, and spent summers on an island off the coast of Maine, living like a hermit with lobster fishermen.

Tantalizingly brief glimpses of an artistic life over which the spotlight of public notice passed from time to time w