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Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

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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.

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.

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.

I became interested in Gorky through the film "Ararat" and quickly read an excellent biography by Hayden Herrera. I have been disappointed at seeing few of his works in person as his work is painted with great care and deliberation. Most of his work I've seen only as photos in books like this one. "Arshile Gorky, A Retrospective", is the terrific catalog of the show mounted by the Philadelphia Museum of Art which sadly I didn't see.

Unlike another reviewer, I was thrilled with the quantity and quality of reproductions. The essays are fascinating and illuminate aspects of this most illusive and fictive of artists. Gorky made up that name as well as much of his past. He was a mercurial idealist and fanatical student of art and artists. I find it amazing, as the progression of the plates in this book demonstrate, that Gorky was able to mimic the styles of a number of different artists and then suddenly in the early forties leap into a lyrical style best exemplified for me in the "The Liver is the Cock's Comb" which I am at a loss to comprehend. It takes my breath away in the same way as does gazing out at the Yosemite Valley.

The first essay, "Rethinking Arshile Gorky" is the best. Michael Taylor walks us through Gorky's career, showing how through his intense study and mimicking of painters like Picasso, Cezanne, Miro, Arp, he gained an incredible rich and powerful skill as a painter. Then in the early forties he sketched landscapes on a Virginia farm, then brought his work into his study where he applied his skills built on the backs of modernist masters to transforming these studies of nature into his own thrilling abstract style. After reading this essay, I viewed the beautiful color plates with a new appreciation of the man's genius.

. The book is beautifully bound & handsomely designed. The many color repros are super. There are paintings that Arshile made such as "Agony" that have other paintings prior to it,reproduced across from it. Found in no other book and I have 16 other books on Gorky. My question on Breton was answered . Robert Storr has an illustration showing Elizabeth Murray influenced by Gorky ,in her pastels she has forms that are straight out of Juan Gris.Her work is imaginative but, Gorky wouldn't like it because of the humor in it. A quality she was more apt to be encouraged by the scene in Chicago than Abstract Expressionism.Surrealism has some wild humor in its practitioners,but not Arshile. The Whitney book of a retrospective of drawings claims influence by Gorky but the reproductions don't back the authors claims up According to Lader's book Gorky didn't like surrealism, he was a traditional painter ...a classicist..Since ,new material in the book such as reproductions has work that is in no other important book on this great artist. I will expect to find new knowledge about Arshile Gorky. The elegance of type,design,photos,binding etc.in the book,I expect that it maybe the best book so far on Gorky.My copy of the whitney retrospective of drawings has already doubled in price.If The Critical Catalogue of Arshile Gorky ,Amazon has a price of 775 dollars on it . This book is 1000 times better than that book.Since I ,have only recently received this book I believe it even better than when I first received it Winston Hough....more later.I have a copy of the Diane Waldman ,a retrospective of Arshile Gorky I have compared it with "the LIver Is the Coxcomb ,the Philadelphia book's reproduction is far superior. I have seen " the Liver" at the Metropolitan Museum and the Addison Museum No reproduction can really do it justice. The color is very intense. I have seen the color repros in the Julian Levy book. The reproductions are tipped in and Gorky fans will do anything to get something of Gorky.So, that the Levy book in local libraries have photos that have been removed.

ARSHILE GORKY: A RETROSPECTIVE is currently in Los Angeles, California at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It is a revelation. This catalogue, so full of Gorky's works form the various stages of his career, is a bit heavy on the written word, but as there are so few fine biographies of this under-appreciated artist that little 'flaw' can be over looked.

What this hefty volume does best is recreate an exhibition flavor - a true gift on the parts of the curators and museum staffs. The reproductions are not only first rate, they are arranged by a designer who appreciates the relation ship of the works placed in the same space. The figurative works are immensely compelling and always have been. To see them together in one hall makes for an extraordinary experience. The bulk of his paintings in this volume are those that after his flight to America influenced Abstract Expressionism. 'The stuff of thought is the seed of the artist. Dreams form the bristles of the artist's brush. As the eye functions as the brain's sentry, I communicate my innermost perceptions through the art, my worldview.' And so it is this stuff of thoughts that populates both the catalogue and the exhibition - creative, wondrously inventive art that will last forever. This is a great book and a fine memorial to an artist who suffered much and achieved much in his short life (April 15, 1904? - July 21, 1948). Grady Harp, September 10

The exhibition which this book documents is a once-in-a-lifetime event. In case you missed it, the catalog gives you all the pieces in the exhibit, plus additional material. The reproductions are excellent, although not as wonderful as the originals (how could they be?). The journey of this artist is inspiring, though harrowing, and his work is not to be missed!

I attentended his exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was a great inspiration. It you think you admire Gorky's work, you will really enjoy having this book.

Arshile Gorkey: A Retrospective is filled with beautiful and inspiring images and gives insight into the motivations for his astounding work. It is a must have for those serious about learning about his work. I recommend this book most highly. Sherrill Kahn