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 GORKY ARSHILE (Vostanig Manoog Adoian) was born on 15.4.1904 in the village of Khorgom (in Van province). He was an Armenian artist. Arshile Gorky  received his primary education in the local school and then in the schools of Van. In 1915 the artist’s family migrated to Yerevan. In 1919 they moved to Tiflis, then to USA.

Arshile Gorky graduated from the Grand Central School of Art in New York (1926), where  he taught for five years.  He changed his surname to “Gorky” in 1925, the surname of Russian famous writer M. Gorky. In the early period the artist mainly painted portraits, such as “The Artist and His Mother” (1928-1932,  Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City), still lifes, landscapes influenced by the Impressionists, later he painted abstract pictures. 

In the last decade of his life Arshile Gorky painted bright and unique pictures, such as “Gardens in Sochi” (1938, the original name of the picture was “Gardens in Khorgom”), “Waterfall” (1943, Tate Gallery, London), “Water of the Flowery Mill” (1944, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), “How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life ” (1944, Seattle Art Museum), “Agony” (1947, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), “The Plough and the Song” (1947), etc.. Gorky achieved his worldwide fame with these pictures and prefigured “surrealistic expressionism”.

The colours of the abstract forms of Gorky’s art were the echo of his childhood bright memories: the blue of lake of Van, yellow sand, etc.

 Gorky was always with Armenia and the Armenian nation. In 1938 he sent four pictures to Armenia,  then in 1941 during the exhibition sale organized in New York he  donated two of his pictures for assisting Red army. In 1946 more than thirty pictures were burnt. Gorky had cancer. The artist committed a suicide on 21.7.1948, in New York.

Gorky’s paintings and drawings are in famous museums of USA, in Tate Gallery (London), Centre Pompidou - National Modern Art Museum‎ (Paris). His pictures are exhibited  in Moscow (1956, American National Exhibition), Yerevan (1963, American Graphics Exhibition). He had personal exhibitions in Philadelphia (1934), New York (1939, 1945, 2003), San Francisco (1941). In 2004 “Arshile Gorky” foundation was established in Yerevan.

Source- «Who is who. The Armenians» encyclopedia, volume 1, chief editor Hovh. Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2007, p. 291 (in Armenian).

See also

Arshile Gorky (paintings)