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Ivan Dmitri
Ivan Dmitri (1900-1968), born Levon West, was an American artist and author.
Born in Centerville, South Dakota, his father was a Congregational minister who immigrated from Armeni...view moreIvan Dmitri (1900-1968), born Levon West, was an American artist and author.
Born in Centerville, South Dakota, his father was a Congregational minister who immigrated from Armenia. The family changed its surname from their Armenian name of Assadoorian to West during World War I, and Levon West adopted the pen name of Ivan Dmitri to use for his color photography (although his etchings and watercolors were always done under Levon West).
Dmitri moved often as a boy, as his father preached in a series of North Dakota towns. The family settled in Harvey in 1918, where Dmitri graduated high school as valedictorian. Following service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1924. He then studied at the Art Students’ League in New York, where he formed an aviation corporation with friends servicing planes at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. Dmitri’s etching from his sketches of Charles Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis plane on a record breaking trans-Atlantic flight made the front page of the New York Times, leading to a series of successful etchings and national prominence. He was also a skilled watercolorist and pioneer in color photography, landing the first color photographic cover on the Saturday Evening Post magazine in May 1937.
Dmitri helped to gain acceptance for photography as an art medium, and established one of the first photography exhibits at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1959, he founded Photography in the Fine Arts. He was a recipient of the North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award in April 1962, the third person so inducted. He passed away in 1968.view less
Books by Ivan Dmitri
Flight To Everywhere [With Illustrations] Vol. II Flight To Everywhere [With Illustrations] Vol. I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings