Aso tavitian biography of albert

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They approached the process with deep scholarship and understanding, returning to Tavitian’s residences to spend time with some 3,000 paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative arts pieces, taking in the features and the spaces these works shared. There are also landscapes by Hubert Robert and Claude-Joseph Vernet, as well as religious paintings by artists including Jan van Eyck and Agnolo Bronzino.

On a clear day, you can even see the Stockbridge Cemetery, where Tavitian is now buried. He became such an important collector that dealers would reach out to him before the event to let him know about special items they would be bringing. He was drawn to the museum because it offered an intimacy that he shared with the artwork he collected.

He thought he wanted to be a scientist, but that changed when he became involved in one of the first independent software companies.

Tavitian was scraping by at the time, working as a taxi driver, playing bridge for money, and driving around in a beat-up Mercury Cougar. Each gathering was special, oftentimes with a guest speaker or a group of musicians performing.

His portraits were very unique, so he unknowingly developed a great portrait collection. “The museum is quite intimate, which was fitting for his own taste.

She urged Tavitian to take a second look at Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Renaissance bronze “Countess Matilda of Canossa” (circa 1630-39) when they saw it at an art fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The existing home was razed, and five years later, they had a newly constructed five-bedroom home with nine fireplaces, a media room, wine cellar, fitness studio, wraparound tiered terraces, pool with pool house, and three-bedroom guesthouse.

Or a pair of Chinese wood and painted plaster nodding-head figures, c.1850 (that was sold at auction for $45,600). He wanted the furniture to complement his taste in art, and he was drawn to English furniture. Bréton said it “amused” Tavitian when he saw freshly painted works going for tens of millions, saying of his old master purchases, “This is nothing compared to that.”

Ignoring trends helped fuel the quest.

I leafed through a booklet of information that I found near the pieces and learned that this French portrait sculptor is known as the inventor of the sculptural caricature.

“Even though I refer to myself as a collector—because everybody says I'm a collector—often I feel that it's a misnomer for me,” Tavitian said during the discussion at The Frick.

They hit it off and were together through the end of his life. “I remember trying to track down the vendors overseas, making sure our shipper was able to get them in time. He was a gifted, lovely, thoughtful man who was all about giving back.”

Assadour Ohanes Tavitian, known to all as “Aso,” was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, to parents who were survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

“When you were with Aso, you had the feeling that there was a dialogue between him and the work he had in front of him,” says Meslay. The Berkshires was a place that Tavitian loved.”

The planning of the gift was accelerated after Tavitian received a cancer diagnosis in the fall of 2019. When leases renewed, the price would increase by a small percentage.

The Clark’s Olivier Meslay, Esther Bell, and Kathleen Morris developed friendships with Tavitian and worked closely with him through the years.