Arto (Harutyun) Tchakmakchian's father was a bookshop owner and a friend of
Vahan Malezian. Arto was born in
Cairo,
Egypt in 1933 and studied at Nubarian National College in
Heliopolis, then in 1946 his family repatriated to
Yerevan. He began his professional studies at the age of 15 at the
Art School of Panos Terlemezian. In 1962 he won first prize at the International Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition in Prague for his sculpture
Reclining Figure". Won first prize for his composition "Monument to the Victims of Hiroshima in a competition organized by
Moscow Peace Committee. The work was given by the
USSR to the
City of Hiroshima in 1964. In 1969 he was recipient of the Armenian Youth Union golden medal for his works
Mother and
Arno Babajanyan which were purchased by the
State Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. The same year Tchakmakchian appeared in
Mikhail Vartanov's suppressed film
The Color of Armenian Land along with
Sergei Parajanov (imprisoned in 1973) and
Minas Avetisyan (assassinated in 1975). Since 1964 academic
Artem Alikhanian became one of the main supporters of Tchakmaktchian's art. In 1972
Joseph Brodsky while in Yerevan visited his studio. In 1984 Tchakmaktchian won First Prize in the
Wilfrid Pelletier Competition in Montreal for his bust of the
competition's namesake. The work is on permanent display in the entrance hall of
Place des Arts in Montreal. His works have also been exhibited at notable museums internationally, notably in the
Louvre Museum. A notable exhibition was held at
UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 2010. ==Awards==