The name of Minas is pronounced with particular affection in Armenia. He devoted the whole of his tragically short life to art. Between 1960 and 1975 Minas created 500 canvases both large and small, roughly the same number of drawings, 20 large frescoes and designs for a dozen or so theatrical productions. Three years before his death under the wheels of car which swerved onto the sidewalk, a fire in his studio destroyed a large proportion of his work. Fate seemed to be against him even after his death, for an earthquake demolished part of his frescoes in Leninakan and flattened the museum devoted to him in his native village of Djadjur.
Saryan was Minas’ spiritual father. The young artist was the true heir to the work of the older man and the symbol of the new growth of national painting. While in Saryan’s works colour is subjugated to the light of the sun, in those of Minas colour has an agitated, passionate, sub-tragic edge. A way of life formed over the centuries torn up at the roots, irrevocable changes in human relationships, and the anxiety of contemporary man all gave his work a sub-consciously dramatic nature. The intense colour of Minas’ work was dictated by the mossy surfaces of the cliffs singed by the sun, cliffs which seem to represent mysterious eternity. Each of Minas’ pictures is a lovingly told tale of his native land, the powerful colour harmony full of life-asserting power.