Art Lies, Volume 43, Summer 2004 Page: 95
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HOUSTON REVIEW
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings
The Menil Collection
Ileana MarcoulescoArmenian born in 1904, Vosdanik Adoian lived a
childhood of extreme deprivation with a mother
whom he adored. After her death, he emigrated
to America and changed his too-ethnic name
to Gorl<ky (the bitter one), perhaps in ironic allu-
sion to the Russian, later Soviet writer, yet also
emblematic of his dominant mood. Classical draw-
ing always came easy to the artist. In his first
sketches, Gorky portrays himself seated next to
his mother-a woman of astounding beauty, dying
at the time of hunger and consumption. I did not
find the folds in their sleeves to be such a chef
d'oeuvre. The remarkable trait of these mother-son
portraits is, rather, their side-by-side iconicity and
the transcendent poignancy in their eyes.
Gorl<y was studious to the extreme and
passed rather quickly through several art schools,
befriending some of the best artists of the epoch
along the way, among them, Willem de Kooning.
Upon first entering Gorkl<y's studio, de Kooning
was bedazzled; they remained very close friends.
Gorl<ky's portraits, most of which look perfectly
classical, exhibit exquisite draftsmanship, simili-
tude and rigor. Sharp and delicate faces are sur-
rounded by an aura of melancholy. An exception is
the portrait of de Kooning with whom Gorl<ky had
this extraordinary resonance; not a bit somber, the
work is done in a modernistic, expressive, stylized
manner.
Everything else in Gorl<ky's oeuvre looks
abstract-a sui generis synthesis of surrealism,
expressionism and aerodynamic futurism. The
dominant atmosphere-especially in the triptychs
Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia (1931-32)-is de
Chirico-esque. Oneiric, with levitating figures, the
work contains scores of surrealist emblems: mad,
infernal dogs, masks of the artist's own invention.
Leaden figures seem to emerge from some lower
abode-a universe of monsters with well-defined
contours yet without identifiable referent. Many
forms undergo ghostlike transformations from ver-
sion to version. Andre Breton, who was extremely
enthusiastic but not terribly specific about Gorkl<y,
called these figures "hybrids." The aggressivity of
Gorl<y's flying things and birdlike profiles vaguely
remind one of Guernica.
In the "Organizations" series an industrial
schema seems to dominate, not devoid of humor.
Whatever geometry there is looks rather like an
ironic afterthought. By contrast, Gorl<y's colorful
drawings of rustic expanses convey a lighter mood,Arshile Gorky, Landscape in Virginia, 1943
Graphite and crayon on paper
10 3/4 X 13 1/16 inches
Private collection
@2003 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkArshile Gorky, Self-portrait, c. 1936
Graphite on paper
9 7/8 X 8 4 inches
Private Collection
2003 Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York
especially those of the Virginia countryside, where
the artist spent two relaxed years on his wife's
farm, offer a scrim of crayons, pastels, washes and
lead. Bizarre, nervous but dancing shapes exude a
joyous curiosity and love of life, as in Landscapes
in Virginia (1943 and 1945), and the subtly colored
Fireplace in Virginia (1946). A happiness malgre
soi transpires in these gentler but certainly not
"sweet" compositions.
In the landscapes, there are resplendent, "musi-
cal" exercises performed in each blade of grass
with a double incarnation: as mushrooms and
musical instruments. In these and other abstract
landscapes, the color palette bears some compari-
son with Kandinsky's, yet Gorl<ky's is more fluid, less
geometrically controlled. In the "impressionistic"
drawings that avowedly inspired Cy Twombly,
one may detect-in frantic density, nudes, absurd
aggregations of bones, sublimated organs, kisses
and hairy promontories-allegories a la Vermeer,
skeletons a la Brueghel.
Gorl<ky's "organicism" was innate, deliberate and
non-mimetic. On the other hand, when he painted,
wall after wall, murals on maritime and avia-Arshile Gorky, Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia,
c. 1931-32
Ink on paper
24 x 31 inches
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
50th Anniversary Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A.
Bergman
@2003 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
tion themes, he added here and there a flowery
decoration, as if to alleviate the dryness of the
technological subject matter.
In 1948, a misdiagnosed (at first) cancerous
bleeding brought the artist almost to his end. Soon
afterwards he fell while climbing a ladder, fractur-
ing his right arm and neck. Confined between his
arm in a splint and a vinyl collar around his neck,
Gorl<y could not stand it anymore. He shot himself
in the head, on a weekend when wife and kids
were out- of-town.ARTL!ES Summer 2004 95
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Bryant, John. Art Lies, Volume 43, Summer 2004, periodical, 2004; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228008/m1/97/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .