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Jackpot! $30 Million In Art Found In Garage Of Newly Purchased Home
Sometimes it pays to buy the former house of an obscure Armenian-American artist, a lesson recently learned by lucky new home owners Thomas Schultz and Lawrence Joseph, reports the Huffington Post.
According to News 12 in Long Island, New York, the duo purchased a massive collection of artworks by little-known painter Arthur Pinajian along with his old Bellport cottage. They bought the rare find for $2,500 in 2007, on top of the$300,000 cost of the house, and proceeded to restore, frame and appraise the paintings, drawings and journals found in the garage.
Art Pinajian (1914–1999) was an Armenian American artist and comic book creator, active from the late 1930s throughout the 1950s, during the Golden Age of Comic Books. He was a member of the Eisner-Iger Studio in 1938-39 and of Funnies, Inc. in 1939-42. Pinajian was the creator of the Quality Comics characters Madame Fatal and the Invisible Hood, also known as Hooded Justice and Invisible Justice.
Arthur Pinajian grew up in an Armenian community in West Hoboken, New Jersey, and was a completely self-trained cartoonist. Pinajian was raised by his parents who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide and who then made their way to the United States. His poetic color combinations are linked to the tonalities of his fellow Armenian, Arshile Gorky.
According to HyperAllergic, the Again with the Comics blog regards Madame Fatal as a transvestite, the first cross dressing hero of the Golden Age (late 1930s–early 1950s) of comic books:
That old lady was more than “she’ appeared to be. Madame Fatal was a man, man! Comics’ first cross-dressing superhero made his dubious debut disguised as that thing least likely to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers: an elderly matron with a Shakespeare-quoting pet parrot! In times of trouble, retired actor/female impersonator Richard Stanton would spring into action using his wits, physical strength, athletic skills, and a full complement of women’s … undergarments to foil crime as the tranny tornado, MADAM FATAL.”
Pinajian worked on many 1930s Centaur Publications titles and features, including ‘Captain Juan’, ‘Egbert the Great’, and ‘Tim Roberts’. He subsequently joined Funnies Inc. Pinajian also drew ‘Captain Terry Thunder’ for Fiction House, ‘Inspector Bancroft’ for Fox Comics, ‘The Wasp’ for Lev Gleason Publications, and ‘Jungle Terror’ for Timely Comics. He was a regular at Quality Comics with ‘Hooded Justice’, ‘Invisible Justice’, ‘Madam Fatal’ and ‘Reynolds of the Mounted’. In the 1950s he worked on Western stories for Atlas/Marvel.
Pinajian also worked on portraits, landscapes, and some abstract paintings. He has been recently noted for his work in the field of abstract expressionism. A collection of Arthur Pinajian’s work has been recently discovered which is generating some interest in the art community
Rarely do we discover a worthy artist who works alone and unheralded. Arthur Pinajian was one of them. 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 Armen (d.2005), Pinajian depended on her totally for financial and moral support.
To our knowledge, no articles were written about Pinajian and he exhibited and sold his paintings only rarely. Despite this neglect, he pursued his art steadfastly and with incredible determination. The majority of his work was found after his death stacked up in the one-car garage and attic of his sister’s property.
Along with the art were found his journals, many letters, and sketch books that spanned the 50 years of his creative life. When all is said and done, this oeuvre is important because it represents an artist’s life in its totality. Within it is found a prize legacy that will endure for posterity; the remainder will win the respect of scholars as they study in depth the life of a truly original artist.
No.1930- Untitled, (Overlook Mountain, Woodstock), 1959, water color on paper, 20 x 26, $ 7,000.00 (e)
Staying in true comedic form in honor of Mr. Arthur Pinajian, I wonder who the jokes on?