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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent Arshile Gorky catalogue, November 3, 2009
This review is from: Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective (Philadelphia Museum of Art) (Hardcover)
This book, a catalogue of an exhibition presently being held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, gives a valuable and comprehensive overview of the work and life of Arshile Gorky (originally named Vosdanig Manood Adoian). Gorky's youth was fractured when he was caught up in the disastrous 1915 Armenain Genocide. He arrived in the America in 1920. During his final two years, Gorky, a dark personality at the best of times, had a major operation for bowel cancer, broke his neck in a serious car accident, lost many paintings in a fire and was abandoned by his wife and children. He hung himself on July 21 1948.
The useful introductory essays deal with his life in general, his painting styles, his politics and his mural work. There is also discussion of his association with the Surrealist movement. There are 186 full page reproductions of Gorky's paintings and drawings. Here one can see his early derivative style where he is obviously influenced by painters such as Cezanne, Picasso, Leger and Miro. It is only in the 1940's where Gorky's true artistic individuality emerges. This final phase had a significant influence on the emerging Abstract Expressionist school and is the most interesting aspect of his oeuvre.
The generously sized color reproductions are of excellent quality and this book is highly recommended for enthusiasts of Gorky's painting in particular and of 20th century art in general.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A painter's imitator who became a painter's painter, November 16, 2009
This review is from: Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective (Philadelphia Museum of Art) (Hardcover)
The catalogue for the current Gorky retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this book, though less than perfect, is probably the best one available on Arshile Gorky. If you are into reading the introductory essays, then it is really worth the investment: they study such themes as Gorky and his Armenian and family roots, Gorky and the politics of the 1930's (through the murals he painted under the aegis of the WPA), Gorky and the Surrealist movement, Gorky as an inspiration for other younger artists (a "painter's painter", as Robert Storr puts it). For Gorky specialists, it is undoubtedly a breakthrough book in that it reinterprets and sheds new light on his art and its Cezannian and Picassian influences (also on the importance of the title in Gorky's work).
Now I am slightly disappointed with the illustrations: with very few magnified details, which makes it difficult to distinguish the texture of the works, they are also too small (most often only third-page).
This is a very complete reference book for the artist, but it deserved larger and more detailed reproductions.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Artist and His Mother, December 18, 2009
This review is from: Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective (Philadelphia Museum of Art) (Hardcover)
Arshile Gorky (c. 1902-1948) was a romantic, passionate, exotic personality whose tragic life reflects the history of the first half of the twentieth century. This book accompanies the major retrospective of his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The volume is beautifully designed and has gorgeous reproductions of his paintings. The essays by Michael R. Taylor, Harry Cooper, Judy Patterson, Robert Storr and Kim Servart Theriault are well researched, scholarly and detailed.
"Exile, Trauma, and Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother" by Kim Servart Theriault describes in detail, with excellent illustrations, the development of Gorky's well- known painting that appears on the book jacket. The painting was inspired by a photographic image. The photograph shows a formally posed mother and son dressed in their finest clothing. He is wearing a Chesterfield coat and she is dressed in a flower printed dress. Her head is chastely covered with a dark scarf. She stares at the viewer almost dispassionately. Her face is quite youthful and beautiful with deep, heavily lidded eyes and sensitive lips. He looks the image of the dutiful son and is holding a small bouquet of flowers. The photograph was taken in Turkish Armenia in 1912. Gorky's father had left his home in 1908 to join his older son in the United States. The photograph was probably sent to him as a reminder that his young son and wife needed his protection. The photograph and Gorky's paintings are a poignant reminder of the suffering he experienced as a child during the horrendous genocide in his country.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated by modern art and the artists who worked to make American art of the twentieth century a creative world force. Arshile Gorky created a moving body of work that is well documented in this book. He encompassed many styles ranging from Post Impressionism to Cubism and Surrealism and finally to the beginnings of Abstract Expressionism.
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