Born in 1930 in Arak, Melkonian was the winner of the first prize for the Paris Biennial in 1959 and has held many exhibitions in Iran, France, Canada and the United States. Hispaintings remind the evolution and achievements of Iran's contemporary paintings over a long period of time. The extraordinary concentration on horizontal lines, replacement of drawings by rough sketches, and highlighting disjointed lines are the significant characteristics of his paintings, he added. "The nature and character of his paintings belong to the divine world".