Painter Minas Avetisyan has created enlightened and deep images; lived an honest and hard life. The people, who were next to him, clearly knew how valuable his paintings were and how much their value would amount to years later. Each of his paintings is unforgettable, colorful and bright.
Minas could easily present his paintings. And after the tragic death of the painter it turned out that many of his masterpieces have been desperately lost. Many of the paintings were burnt during the fire in the workshop of the master. But, in general, the gossips that only the duplicates of the master’s paintings are left have not ceased so far. His paintings appear in different countries of the world and are always sold at very high prices. Minas Avetisyan paid the most expensive price for his worldwide popularity. The accident that occurred under unclear circumstances took his life away. After his mysterious death we only have his enlightened and inspiring art.
This is the last photograph of Minas, which was shot a day before the accident – February 14, 1975. The author of the photograph was the photographer of the official daily newspaper “Soviet Armenia”, named Avet Yesayan, who had been cooperating with Minas long before that and had been preparing slides for his masterpiece albums. Minas and Avet Yesayan were in close relationship. On February 13, Minas called A. Yesayan and said, “Avet, hurry to my workshop. I have three new pieces that need to go through slides”. The photographer rushed to the master’s workshop. “It was midnight. I knew that Minas needed the slides for the morning because an Armenian businessman from Beirut was supposed to take them back to Beirut”, tells A. Yesayan. The photos have been prepared over the night and at six o’clock the next morning A. Yesayan knocked at Minas’s door. “Minas was not asleep. I heard him call his wife from behind the door screaming “Gayan, Gayan, open the door, maybe this is Avet”, he tells. Minas tried to pay the photographer back as soon as possible and even then offered money before looking at the slides. Minas’s trust was very expensive for A. Yesayan. He said, “Wait, I better take your picture”. Minas didn’t like being photographed. “How can I be photographed in such a drab way?”, he said. “Why so drab?”, said the photographer and took this last picture of Minas. “You know, he was such an interesting person, slightly sad, unkempt hair, and a “kinto” hat on his head. I wanted to take his picture like that”, tells A. Yesayan. On that day, Minas also asked to photograph his decorations prepared for “Antuni” ballet, wishing to leave that masterpiece in history as well. “The decorations are in a bad condition, spoilt but let them stay as a memory”. The 50th anniversary “Antuni” ballet performance was supposed to take place the next day, February 15. In the morning, Minas Avetisyan had planned to go eat “Khash” in Gyumri with his friends Henrik Igityan and Hakob Hakobyan. He suggested Avet Yesayan to join them but the photographer refused, instead he promised to photograph the ballet the next day. And that next day was the day of tragedy. The ballet was a great success; the hall was full with spectators. A banquet was anticipated after the completion of the ballet but Minas did not participate in it. He decided to go home despite the fact that he had another invitation. He had another invitation to go to “Armenia” Hotel with Polish journalists (Zbignev Lesnikovski and Zbigen Sukharein), who had been to Minas’s workshop and wanted to invite him to an interview. According to Avet Yesayan, the Polish guests were drunk and Minas hesitated to join them or not. First he wanted to go to the hotel but later changed his mind and decided not to go. Minas told A. Yesayan, “I won’t go anywhere with drunk men”, later wishing “good night”, slowly and ponderously walked home. A “Moskvich” car hit him at the crossroads of Teryan and Sayat-Nova streets.
There are no “if”s in life, but on the last day of Minas’s life there were many “ifs” like that. Perhaps, if he had accepted the invitation to the banquet or the hotel he might have avoided that tragic accident.
While in the hospital Minas managed to see the album of slides of his masterpieces, which he had been impatiently waiting for and which had been prepared by artist Henrik Igityan and photographer Avet Yesayan.