Charles Garabedian

Charles Garabedian (, December 29, 1923 – February 11, 2016) was an American-Armenian artist known for his paintings and drawings rich in references to Greek and Chinese symbolism. His artwork reveals a deeply personal world that explores the relationship between painting and sculpture.

Biography

Garabedian was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Armenian immigrants who had come to the U.S. to escape the Armenian genocide. Garabedian's mother died when he was two and his father was unable to take care of the three children. Garabedian lived in an orphanage until age nine, when he, his father, and siblings moved to Los Angeles, California.

From 1942 to 1945, Garabedian served as a staff sergeant in the United States Air Force and was an aerial gunner in the European theater during World War II. Under the auspices of the G.I. Bill, Garabedian studied literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1947 to 1948. He then went on to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1950. In 2011, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art hosted a retrospective of Garabedian's work. He died on February 11, 2016, at the age of 92.