Appreciation: NY Artist and Illustrator Paul Sagsoorian Passes Away at 93 Years of Age

Novelist Peter Sourian, who worked with Sagsoorian for several decades as part of the editorial board of Ararat quarterly (published by the Armenian General Benevolent Union), declared that “Paul Sagsoorian was a skilled artist who fashioned a distinctive look for Ararat. His illustrations and drawings turned countless Armenian publications and posters into enticing works. His talent, his kindness and his generous spirit will be long remembered.”

A proud descendant of a Havav village (Palu province) family, Sagsoorian graduated from several art schools and the US Army’s mapmaking school during his World War II service. He received a sharpshooter’s medal during a military trip to Iceland, and a good conduct medal while in Germany, the Rhineland and Central Europe. He worked on maps for mine-laying in Iceland, and their removal in Normandy.

After the war he worked for art studios, advertising agencies and book publishers. Talented in many media, he prepared countless displays, advertisements, magazine illustrations and book jackets. He illustrated poems in the New York Times magazine, Harpers, and the New Yorker. He provided advertising for firms as varied as Nestles, RCA Victor, Weight Watchers (magazine), PBS, NBC, Newsweek and S&H Greenstamps. He prepared album covers for a series of recordings of music of the world. In 1957, the American Institute of Graphic Arts selected a book illustrated by Sagsoorian as one of its 50 Best Books of the Year.

He illustrated some 15 books on a variety of non-Armenian topics, primarily for younger readers. He worked on a large number of detective and science fiction works, including many of the Danny Dunn series, travel works and books devoted to various animals. He also illustrated a variety of other books, including a volume for stroke victims, a book on Latin America and another on William Gladstone (the Armenian connection perhaps coming through here).

He used his talents to illustrate many books on Armenian topics, including the famous Armenian epic Daredevils of Sassoun, translated by Leon Surmelian in 1964, and two plays translated into English by the late Dr. Nishan Parlakian — Alexandre Shirvanzade’s Evil Spirit (1980) and Aramashot Babayan’s Be Nice, I’m Dead (1990). He also illustrated Arthur Ayvazian’s historical work, Armenian Victories at Khznavous and Sardarabad, and Haig Baronian’s Armenian Genocide survivor account, Barefoot Boy from Anatolia, both published in 1983.

On the occasion of Sagsoorian’s 80^th birthday in 2003, Ararat quarterly organized an exhibit of his artwork and recognized his decades of work beginning in 1964 for this premiere Armenian literary and cultural periodical. He became the artist in charge of Ararat starting in 1978. The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) threw him a bash when he turned 85.