Sakian Vagan took part in the Great Patriotic War, then moved to Moscow, where he worked as a driver. In 1988, he first began selling his pictures in Izmailovo. From the early 1990s he was exhibited in galleries and worked for collectors. Primitive art has deep national roots in Armenia, in the 1960s and 1970s there were many naive artists in this republic, most of their works were then exported abroad through the wide Armenian diaspora. Sakyan is the ”Moscow branch” of Armenian primitive art.
In his art, specific features of Caucasian colourfulness and decorativeness are interwoven with plots inspired by Moscow life.
Noteworthy are his works on biblical subjects: ”Noah’s Ark”, ”Flight into Egypt”. He is a master of depicting horses and riders (for example, his picture called ”Highlander”).
Tense expressive colour, densely painted paint, expressive sharpness of an art image are characteristic features of small but clearly arranged compositions of Sakiyan.
Like many primitive masters, Sakian has varieted his favourable subjects for about ten or twenty times. However, each picture is not a copy of the previous one, but has its own image and even different accents. Sakian is a unique artist by his sense of vision, artistic philosophy and the style of self-expression.
