Aramco Expats

Postcards by Sumbat

1. Lifestyles
2. Travel & Leisure
3. Art & Entertainment

Author: Grady Gaston Early
Released 15 July 2003

Grady Gaston Early located the son of Sumbat Kiureghian, Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian, in a Google search on the internet. Grady wrote the following to Dr. Kiureghian.

 On the way to the picnic
Sumbat

In the 1960s, my uncle worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia. While there, he and my aunt met and became friends with an artist who signed his work 'Sumbat'. My aunt and uncle have one of Sumbat's paintings -- of a dhow -- which I inherited. They also received some postcards from Sumbat.

 

Dr. Kiureghian wrote the following:

Yes, Sumbat was my father. The boy with the rifle in his hand is me. Of course I look very different now. This postcard is part of a series of 23 postcards my father created as Christmas cards. The faces are photographs and the rest is his imagination. This one is showing the family on a picnic trip.

Unfortunately my father passed away in 1999. He was a marvelous man and a superb artist.

 At the Picnic
Sumbat

Regarding the family postcards, luckily we have all but one of the originals. In time, these were sent to his friend Stanley Foster in U.K. But after Foster's death, his brother sent them back to Sumbat. One was lost in the mail. As I said, there are 23 or 24 of them, each depicting an imaginary scene, usually in an Armenian, Iranian or other ethnic setting. The originals are of course in watercolor.

Some of them are really, really good. You are very right about the humor in them. He had a fantastic sense of it. I will have at least six of these Christmas cards in the book. I also have a web page in the works devoted to his work and life.

I am very glad to have this contact with Aramco people who knew him.

Grady had a 4x5 transparency made for Armen of the dhow painting as Armen may use it as an illustration in a book that he is preparing about his father's life and work. Armen did not have examples of his dad's work in Saudi Arabia.

Aramco ExPats, Ward Whitley and Grady Gaston Early would like to thank everyone who sent us e-mails to help identify these artists. We very much appreciate your responses. Thank you.

At Home