Arshile Gorky
Biography

Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-American painter recognized for his profound influence on the development of Abstract Expressionism.

Born Vostanik Manoug Adoian in 1904, he and his family were victims of the Armenian Genocide. After surviving a death march at the hands of the Turkish military, his mother died from starvation when Gorky was a teenager. Fleeing to Russia and then to the United States in 1920, he changed his name to avoid discussing his past. He attended the New School of Design in Boston, where he absorbed the influence of Impressionism and Paul Cézanne. Moving to New York in the early 1930s, he found work as muralist for the Works Progress Administration, where he met fellow artist Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

Artist Corinne Michelle West was Gorky’s muse, she refused to marry him though despite several proposals. In 1941, Gorky met and married Agnes Ethel Magruder they had two daughters. Later in life, Gorky suffered from depression brought on by health problems and the dissolution of his marriage. The artist committed suicide on July 21, 1948 in Sherman, CT.

Today, his works are held the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.

Born: 1904
Died: 1948
Education: New England School of Art in Boston

Exhibitions

Select Exhibitions

2022
Arshile Gorky: Beyond The Limit, HAUSER & WIRTH, ZURICH (BAHNHOFSTRASSE) ZÜRICH | SWITZERLAND

2021
Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, John Graham, SHIN GALLERY LOWER EAST SIDE | NEW YORK | USA

2019
Picasso–Gorky–Warhol. Sculptures and works on paper from the Hubert Looser Collection
KUNSTHAUS ZÜRICH ZÜRICH | SWITZERLAND
Arshile Gorky 1904-1948, CA’ PESARO INTERNATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART VENICE | ITALY

2015
Arshile Gorky and Gustav Klimt: Collection Conversations, THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART NORFOLK | VIRGINIA | USA

2014
Arshile Gorky: Suggestion, That is the Dream, NORTE MAAR BROOKLYN | NEW YORK | USA

2011
Arshile Gorky: 1947, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, NEW YORK (980 MADISON AVENUE) UPPER EAST SIDE | NEW YORK | USA

2010
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, MOCA GRAND AVENUE DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES | LOS ANGELES | CALIFORNIA | USA

2009
1945-1949: Repartir a zero, comme si la peinture n’avait jamais existe, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, France

2008
Peggy Guggenheim e la Nouva Pittura Americana, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

2008
Action Painting, Foundation Beyeler, Riehen
Die Hande der Kunst, MARTa Herford, Herford

2007
Arshile Gorky: Homage, Centre Pompidou, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris
“Picasso and American Art,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

2006
“Société Anonyme: Modernism in America,” UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2005
“Exil und Moderne,” Kunsthalle St. Annen Lübeck, Lübeck
“Surrealism USA,” Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
“Dream On: Surrealism and Beyond from the Phoenix Art Museum Collection,” Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
“Informalismo y Expresionismo abstracto en las colecciones Guggenheim,” Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao
“Into The Unknown: Abstraction From The Collection,” MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
“Out of Site: Selections from the Marsha S. Glazer Collection,” Art Museum at U.C. Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
“After Cézanne,” MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA; MOCA THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY, Los Angeles, CA

2004
“Modern Means: Continuity and Change in Art from 1880 to the Present,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
“Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings,” The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
“Das MoMA in Berlin. Meisterwerke aus dem Museum of Modern Art, New York.” Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
“Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
“Drawing Modern: Works from the Agnes Gund Collection,” The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

2003
“El Expresionismo Abstracto Americano en las Colecciones Españolas,” Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia
“The Heroic Century: The Museum of Modern Art Masterpieces, 200 Paintings & Sculptures,” MFAH: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
“International Abstraction: Making Painting Real,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
“Arshile Gorky,” Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

2002
“Arshile Gorky,” Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
“Think Small: Little Treasures from the Permanent Collection,” Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
“Arshile Gorky: Portraits,” Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
“Surrealism: Desire Unbound,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
“The Tiger’s Eye: The Art of a Magazine,” Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
“The Kindness of Friends: A Selection of Gifts of Drawings and Prints, 1919–2000” Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA
“Collecting the Vanguard: Art from 1900-1970,” The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH

2000
“Twentieth-Century American Art: The Ebsworth Collection,” The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1999
“De Durero a Rauschenberg: La quintaesencia del dibujo,” Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao
“Linhas de Sombra,” Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigão – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

1998
“Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, 1929-1942,” Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
“The New York School,” Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
“Defining the Edge: Early American Abstraction-Selections,” Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
“Hannah Höch, Mit Pinsel, Feder und Schere,” Galerie Remmert und Barth, Duesseldorf

1996
Arshile Gorky, Centro de Arte Moderna Jose de Azeredo Pedrigao, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

1994
Arshile Gorky Late Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY

1993
Arshile GOrky, Centro de Arte Moderna Jose de Azeredo Pedrigao, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

1990
Arshile Gorky, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

1989
60 Meisterwerke aus der Solomon R. Gugenheim Foundation, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

1983–1984
Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927-1944, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

1964
documenta 3, Documenta, Kassel

1962
Arshile Gorky: 1904-1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1959
documenta 2, Documenta, Kassel

1958
The Disquieting Muse: Surrealism, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX

1956
Large Scale Paintings II, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX

1953
5th Anniversary Exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY