Prominent Armenian artist Rudolf Khachatryan would have celebrated his 75th birthday today.

People's artist of the USSR Rudolf Khachatryan was born in Yerevan on March 4, 1937. His childhood was full of hardship as he was destined to live through severe war and after war years. His family had nothing in common with professional artistic life and moreover, was least interested in art. All this could hardly promote his further success in the world of art. Yet being still a teenager he was keen on drawing.

Little by little his love and enthusiasm turned into a deep passion for art and at the age of 18 he exhibited his drawings at different exhibitions held in republic. He took drawing lessons with prominent painter and sculptor Ervand Kochar.

His formation as an artist was most active in the 1960s when the world of art was in search of new traditions. Rudolf Khachatryan is a "poet of line" as he was called by one of the Honored Art workers of the USSR C. B. Yamshikov; "Just a very simple line in his drawings turns into a universal means making it possible to express the most subtle touches of human feelings and the richness of the world surrounding him."

Kahchatryan died at the age of 70 during a heart surgery in Germany.