Arman Manookian

• Name — Arman Manookian • Native Name — Արման Թադէոս Մանուկեան • Birth Name — Tateos Manookian • Born — May 15, 1904 • Birthplace — Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey) • Died — 10 May 1931 • Place of death — Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii (now Hawaii, U.S.) • Known for — Painting, muralist, decorative artist, printmaker • Movement — Art deco • Education — Rhode Island School of Design, Art Students League of New York • Occupation — Visual artist, illustrator

Arman Tateos Manookian was the oldest of three children born to an Armenian Christian family in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). As a teenager, he survived the Armenian genocide. Manookian immigrated to the United States in 1920. At the age of 16 he studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. Later he took classes at the Art Students League of New York, before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps in 1923.

• Illustration — Hawaiian Boy and Girl, mural by Arman Manookian • Illustration — Men in an Outrigger Canoe Headed for Shore, 1929 While serving in the United States Marine Corps he was assigned as a clerk to the author and historian, Major Edwin North McClellan. While in the Marines, Manookian had supplied illustrations for Leatherneck Magazine, and produced about 75 ink drawings for McClellan's history of the United States Marine Corps, which was never published. These drawings are now in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. In 1927, Manookian was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, but remained in Hawaii. He worked for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and for Paradise of the Pacific. Manookian's artwork was best known for its romantic and idealized illustrations and paintings of Hawaiian landscapes, and of ancient Hawaiian culture. His portraits often featured a focus on overtly masculine bodies. Manookian's last known artwork made was a three panel mural of flamingos for a private residency in Halekou Heights in Kāneʻohe, Hawaii. The Bishop Museum and the Honolulu Museum of Art are among the public collections holding works by Manookian. According to the State of Hawaii's House of Representatives, he is "known as Hawaii's Van Gogh". Only thirty-one of his oil paintings are known to exist as of 2011.

Arman Manookian is recorded as painter, muralist and decorative artist.