Grigor Khanjyan

Grigor mentioned on several occasions that a doctor had advised his mother, already in relatively advanced age, to get pregnant in order to avoid some health problems and that is the reason for him to be conceived.

For example, for his graduation work he chose the topic of 1907 Communist Congress in London, but pictured Stepan Shaumian (ethnic Armenian) instead of Joseph Stalin (as expected) next to Lenin.

As the tapestries were held in the Patriarchate buildings, where the common Soviet people could not enter, Khanjyan was asked by Karen Demirchyan (then the head of Armenian Communist Party) to reproduce the works as murals at the newly finished Yerevan Arena for Sport and Music (Hamalir).

Instead, Khanjyan created the second largest in the Soviet Union theatrical curtain - Mother Armenia - for Hamalir and followed the advice of his friend, architect Jim Torosyan and made the murals at the Yerevan Cascade (now Cafesjian Museum of Art, then still under construction).

In 1990, Khanjyan accepted the invitation from the Academy of Sciences of Armenia to join it as a full member (receiving the title 'Academician') in the field of Art History.