Hagop Sandaldjian (1931–1990Joshua Tompkins
"Honey I Shrunk the Art"
'' Los Angeles Magazine'', May 1997, p.24.) was an Egyptian-born Armenian American musician and microminiature

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, best known for his tiny art pieces, currently displayed at the

Museum of Jurassic Technology The Museum of Jurassic Technology at 9341 Venice Boulevard in the Palms district of Los Angeles, California, was founded by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson in 1988.Tony Perrottet" The Museum of Jurassic Technology: A throwback to t ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Sandaldjian's creations included a carving of

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat or , ''Ararat''; or is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest peak in Turkey and th ...

on a grain of rice; a

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

in which a minute golden figure of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

hangs upon a

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

made from a bisected strand of Sandaldjian's own hair; and recreations of Disney figures (

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

or Mickey Mouse, for example) or historical figures (such as

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

) presented in the eye or on the tip of a needle. Sandaldjian was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, and went to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

to study music in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

and in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. After graduating from the Ippolitov-Ivanov Music College in 1955, he became a violinist, and taught music at a conservatory in Yerevan. In the early 1970s he learned about the art of microminiature from one of his students, Eduard Ghazaryan. Sandaldjian emigrated to the United States in 1980, but was required to leave behind his first collection of 18 miniature works. Over the next decade, he produced another 33 miniatures. Working extremely slowly under a microscope, Sandaldjian employed self-made tools such as sharpened needles tipped with ruby or diamond dust, compiling his sculptures out of minuscule materials such as dust, lint, and hair. Even among the few practitioners of microminiature art, Sandaldjian was unusual in that he painted his work, using a single sharpened strand of hair as a brush. Sandaldjian would time his motions to come between his heartbeats, thus maximizing his control of his fingers. Those who saw Sandaldjian at work said that they could not tell when his hands moved.Phil Cousineau, ''Stoking the Creative Fires: 9 Ways to Rekindle Passion and Imagination'' (Conari, 2008), , , pp.39-41
excerpt available
at Google Books). As recounted in

Lawrence Weschler Lawrence Weschler (born 1952) is an author of works of creative nonfiction. A graduate of Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz (1974), Weschler was for over twenty years (1981–2002) a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', w ...

's book '' Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder'', Museum of Jurassic Technology founder David Hildebrand Wilson learned about Sandaldjian from a museum visitor, and began visiting him at his home in

Montebello, California Montebello (Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an independent city. east of downtown Los Angeles. It ...

. Wilson, who described the artist as "a very calm man", eventually decided to give Sandaldjian a show at the museum, but when he called Sandaldjian to tell him, Wilson learned that the artist had died only 10 days earlier. Weschler also relates that his initial doubts about the veracity of the museum's Sandaldjian exhibit were allayed when he located Sandaldjian's son in Montebello, who confirmed details about how his father worked, and also told Wechsler about the tradition of microminiature art in Armenia.

, '' Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder'' (Pantheon Books, 1995), , pp. 58-60.

Publications

*''The Eye of the Needle: The Unique World of Microminiatures of Hagop Sandaldjian,'' with an essay by

Ralph Rugoff Ralph Rugoff (born 12 January 1957) is an American-born curator, the director of London's Hayward Gallery since 2006, and the curator of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Rugoff was born in New York City, the son of a film distributor father and a psy ...

, Museum of Jurassic Technology, 1996, Los Angeles, California, USA. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandaldjian, Hagop People from Alexandria Egyptian emigrants to the United States American people of Armenian descent Egyptian people of Armenian descent Microminiature sculptors 1931 births 1990 deaths People from Montebello, California 20th-century sculptors Armenian educators Ethnic Armenian artists