[Still Life]

Azarias Madanian was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1944 to an Armenian father and a Greek mother. In 1962 he was granted a scholarship by the Kaloust Kulbekian Foundation to study Fine Arts and Art History at the American University of Beirut. He graduated in 1966 and then, on the same scholarship, he continued his postgraduate studies at the Boston Art Institute (1974) and then he got his PhD diploma from Harvard University (1979). He held 40 solo exhibitions in Greece, the Middle East and the USA and took part in group exhibitions in Athens, Heraklion, Boston and New York.

He received distinctions and awards for his work by the Metropolitan Museum, the City of Boston, the Edison Museum in New Jersey, and the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University. He was a versatile artist who wrote books (including the publication of his dissertation, The art history of the Aegean civilizations, his articles in Harvard Magazine and The Artist’s Magazine, his study titled Teaching Children to Draw – a guide of teachers and parents), contributed to art education (including teaching at the Pedagogical Academy of Heraklion, at the School for Trainers in Public Education – Regional Training Centre of Heraklion, at Harvard Summer School, and as a lecturer in Aesthetic Education at the Pedagogical Department of the University of Crete). He was also an active member of the Cambridge Art Association. Azarias Madanian died in Heraklion, Crete in 2004.