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Arshile Gorky

(1904 - 1948 )

Works

The Artist and His Mother
Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia

Country

Armenia / United States


Biography

Arshile Gorky was born into a peasant family under the name Vosdanig Manoog Adoian in Khorkum, near Van in Turkish Armenia (now Turkey). Gorky's early life was difficult. His father abandoned the family to avoid service in the Turkish Army and Gorky's family was uprooted when Armenia became the target of Turkish aggression in 1915. These events ultimately claimed the life of the artist's mother in 1918, when she died of starvation during a forced relocation march. In 1920, Gorky emigrated to the United States and adopted the name under which he became best known--Arshile is derived from Achilles, the hero of Homer's Illiad and Gorky which means "the bitter one" in Russian, was borrowed from the writer Maksim Gorky. Reunited with his sisters and father, Gorky attended the Rhode Island School of Design and Boston's New School of Design before quitting his studies to teach at the Grand Central School of Art. As an artist, Gorky studied and adapted the styles of modernist artists such as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro, wanting to fully understand their aesthetic styles before adding to them. He followed that course in his art until 1939, when artist Roberto Matta introduced him to Surrealism. Gorky began to create works that married ideas of European Surrealism with those of American Abstract Expressionism. These works, mostly abstract in nature, often contain allusions to the tragic events of his childhood. Unfortunately, Gorky's years of success as an artist were overshadowed by a number of personal tragedies that eventually led to his death. He suffered from colon cancer, and a fire in his studio destroyed a number of his paintings. He then lost the use of his painting arm as a result of a car accident. His marriage soon disintegrated, and Arshile Gorky committed suicide by hanging himself on July 21, 1948.


Further Reading

Ashton, Dore, Michael Auping, and Matthew Spender. Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years. Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Foundation, Solomon R. Guggenheim. Acquisition priorities: aspects of postwar painting in America, including Arshile Gorky, works 1944-1948: [exhibition] New York: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Jordan, Jim M. The Paintings of Arshile Gorky : A Critical Catalogue. Colombia University Press.

Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky (Modern Masters Series, Vol. 8). Abbeville Press, Inc., 1990.
Matossian, Nouritza. Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky. Overlook Press, 2000.
Seitz, William C., and Julien Levy, Introduction. Arshile Gorky (Museum of Modern Art Publications in Reprint). Ayer Co Pub., Hardcover reprint edition, 1979.
Spencer, Matthew. From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. University of California Press, 2000.
Waldman, Nancy. Arshile Gorky, 1904 to 1948: A Retrospective. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1981.
www.arshile-gorky.com
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