Arman Manookian: Hawaii’s Van Gogh – A Lost Voice of the Pacific The art world often seeks out the dramatic, the scandalous, the utterly unique. Arman Tateos Manookian (1904-1931), an Armenian-American painter who briefly captivated Honolulu in the 1920s and 30s, embodies all of these qualities. Known affectionately as “Hawaii’s Van Gogh,” his tragically short life produced a remarkable body of work—a vibrant, romantic vision of island life that remains remarkably underappreciated today. Manookian's story is inextricably linked to the tumultuous events of his early years, marked by displacem…