Eduard Ter-Ghazaryan

Life and work

Eduard Ter-Ghazaryan was born in Yerevan and began violin lessons at the age of six. At thirteen he built his first violin, no bigger than a match head. In 1937 his father, a senior official, was arrested, and the family spent about two decades living in a basement, where much of his early fine work was done in poor light.

Trained as a musician, he worked for many years as concertmaster of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra while developing his micro-art. In 1947 he showed his first works invisible to the naked eye in Yerevan. Over his life he created more than a thousand micro-sculptures: carvings on hair and rice grains and scenes placed inside the eye of a needle.

His most original contribution was the “movable micro-work”: microscopic figures that actually move. He was also an inventor and violin maker. He revived an 18th-century instrument, the viola pomposa, and built the “Peace Music Automaton” (1987), a gun-shaped machine carrying about forty instruments from different nations. He also produced ultra-fine needles used in eye surgery.

His tradition continues through his grandson, also named Eduard Ter-Ghazaryan. Works by both are shown at the Ter-Ghazaryans’ Micro Art Museum in Yerevan.