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Customer Reviews (8)

This book is outstanding
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

The Definitive Volume on Arshile Gorky
ARSHILE GORKY: A RETROSPECTIVEis currentlyin 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

Window into the Evolution of an Artist
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.Ittakes 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.

excellent catalog of an excellent show
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!

The Artist and His Mother
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 KimServart 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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Often referred to as the last Surrealist and first Abstract Expressionist, Arshile Gorky (c. 1900 1948) appears as an interstice within art history's linear progression. Gorky embraced dream imagery in the tradition of the Surrealists, used all-over patterning before Jackson Pollock, promoted disembodied color before Mark Rothko, exploited the physicality of paint before Willem de Kooning, and anticipated stain painting. His life—escaping the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and struggling as an immigrant artist in New York in the 1930s and 1940s—and his tumultuous personal relationships have cast the artist as a tragic figure and often overshadowed the genius of his art.

Rethinking Arshile Gorky is an examination of the artist and his work based on themes of displacement, self-fashioning, trauma, and memory. By applying a multitude of techniques, including psychoanalytic, semiotic, and constructivist analyses to both explain and demythologize the artist, is a contemporary critique of both the way we construct the idea of the "artist" in modern society and the manner in which Arshile Gorky and his art have historically been addressed.

Customer Reviews (2)

dissertation?
This book must be a major paper,she has no hypothesis or is not able to make a conclusion . It has been sixty two years since Gorky's death. Most of his friends are dead. His nephew's notes have been discredited.Speculation on an artist who has been dead for so long and try to fill in the blanks is pointless. The author thinks that she can sympathize ,yet criticize with the other part of her family heritage.She has one parent who is Armenian.Her study is multidisciplinary.Many art history departmentsavoid this approach.. In a book on Malevich the authors write from a physical science point of view.Most of the Gorky books written for the 2009-2010 retrospective. cite Schwabacher;s Gorky.She knew Gorky for a number of years and wrote the first book on him.Like Theriault they do not answer the question why did he paint?In the Schwabacher P.105 she quotes Gorky:" the way to keep painting is' to create something inside that makes you want to re-create it.' "Most of the books I have read fail to see the importance of this in understanding Gorky.This remark gives some insight into why he continued.You can go on and on about the Armenian background. Too much has been made of this. It doesn't make his art important.It is obvious to me why he changed his name. He had to shed the Armenian moniker. First , an Armenian colleague of mine(masters in architecture Princeton) told me in the late fifties. That in Virginia it wasn't much better than being Black.Than there is the pronunciation,like Van Gogh that everyone pronounces Van Go . Or mis-pronounces... Van Gogh signed many paintings Vincent because his name was always mis-pronounced.But, this reasoning doesn't r doesn't satisfy academics who are looking for more high-sounding rhetoric in their circle.It is an interesting book to read,and challenging. She uses "punctum"throughout the bookA word that my computer isn't aware of ,it was red-lined. Some well educated people I know, including a PHD.Didn'tknow the word.Photography is the source of "punctum" I don't think the word is all that appropriate here,as Gorky's work is more important to ART for its formal propertiesShe never clarifies the meaning of this word.If the book had a glossary, I would have given her an A on her orals, ,but I think this effort is a b+. The author admits she lacks the answer to the mystery of Arshile Gorky.I have purchased all of the Gorky books for the Philadelphia-Tate- Los Angeles This book is priced at Forty dollarsif repros are important to you buy the Taylor catalogue. Or the other two books that are less expensive. Except for the cover most of the reproductions are somewhat muted and small.The text and ideas are quite challenging. Like many academic studies this book has excellent notes ,bibliography and index.She questions most of the monographs on Gorky.I have a British publication (Whitehall)on the artist and it has some photographs of the Armenian churches in B/W .I haven't gained a lot in appreciating Gorky from looking at his from an Armenian perspective.The fields of Virginia provide me with more of his mind-set.He had learned about doodling(psychic-automatism he combined with direct observation) it was the weeds,grasses that set off any remembrances of Armenia.This book does much to increase interest in Gorky. The viewer must look from his own perspective. As I think Theriaultwould agree. In her conclusion she states:"An individual and perhaps deeply personal understanding of the artist and his art,is indeed right up our alley . If you are a devoted fan of Arshile Gorky than buy the book I think the main audience here is art historians..specializing in mid- 20th century American art. Who is the author of "Re-thinking Arshile Gorky her or Taylor?" Taylor;s article is is listed as "Re-thinking Arshile Gorky. The PMFA catalogue was published prior to this book. Winston Hough ( this was an Amazon purchase)

Rethinking Arshile Gorky
The recent Arshile Gorky Retrospective Catalogue published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2009 included a relatively short but important essay by Kim S. Theriault titled 'Exile,Trauma and Gorky's The Artist and his Mother'
We now have a major critical study by this scholar titled 'Rethinking Arshile Gorky' published by the Pennsylvania State University Press which is an important addition to the literature on this artist and on the period in which he
emerged as one of the most important and influential figures in the development of 20th. century American painting. This is a serious,well researched academic study written with sympathy. insightand in a totally accesible
style. It is a big generous book which deals withmany complex ideas which are interwoven with the biography of the artist in a very persuasive and engaging manner.Very well written and beautifully produced, many black and
white plates,excellent colour reproductions, informative end notes and an extensive bibliography.
A must have book for anyone interested in this great Armenian-American painter and American painting in general.


Alun Leach-Jones
Honory R.E. Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London
Adjunct Professor, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney ... Read more

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A leading figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement, Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) is a pivotal figure in American painting who bridged European modernism and the New York School. This attractive introduction, published to coincide with a major traveling exhibition of his work, provides new insight into the tragic life and important career of one of the 20th century’s greatest painters. 

After fleeing the Turkish incursion into Armenia, Gorky arrived in New York in 1920 and swiftly became an integral part of the American art scene. His most famous early work, The Artist and his Mother, was inspired by a single surviving photograph of his family, while his later style impressively incorporated biomorphic, abstract, and surrealist elements.

Customer Reviews (1)

tate take on gorky.
Matthew Gale and staff produced this fine volume on Arshile Gorky. The writing is explicit andunderstandable. Of the recommended further readings I have all of the books except three. The general works on surrealism I have read:Sawin and Tashjian.(.bothavailable in local libraries).The only book I haven't read is the Beredjikian. I like the sub-title of the book Enigma--Nostalgia. The drawings that he refers to he sees as intensely wrought etchings.But ,no one raises why didn't Gorky ever do prints.I think the stature of the series:Nighttime Enigma and Nostalgiaraises them to a level of paintings. Matisse saw drawings as important as works on canvas. If Gorky didn't share the same aesthetic ,I am sure many other people in the art world do.They are scrupulously worked on,they have a high degree of technical skill.Works that I think rank as top abstractions of the period.Unique to this edition is the discussion on Duchamp's "Large Glass " influenced Gorky and Matta.The color reproductions are excellent as good as any other on Gorky. They are appropriately placed throughout the book next to their talking points. You can buy this book at Amazon for halfof the cost of the otherbooks on Gorky. I bought this from Amazon. Winston Hough ... Read more

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This massive biography accompanies a major new exhibition of the work of Armenian-born painter Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), who is increasingly considered an important influence on the development of abstract expressionism. The book tells his story through many voices: his letters, sent and received; the correspondence of family and friends; pivotal reviews and criticism; newspaper articles and other essential documents. From Gorky s turbulent childhood fleeing the Armenian genocide in Turkey, to his adulthood in the United States, to his suicide in his forties after a traumatic series of physical and emotional setbacks, this biography offers an intimate window into the artist's life. ... Read more

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Gorky's last work
The reproductions in this book are very good. Especially ''the Limit","the plow and the song"," the calendars". I have several books on Gorky ,but when I don't want to lift up a cocktail table type of book I refer to to this one "Agony " and the above works are among my favorites. Dore Ashton was very well respected byAbstract Expressionist I knew of the second generation.The book contains some letters by Arshile to his sister about what he was trying to do with his work.Their are bigger and better books but it has no equal for its size.The price is right.Now by your leave ,I will get back to re-reading Spender ,Auping and Ashton ... Read more

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An immigrant from a small Armenian village in eastern Turkey, Arshile Gorky (c. 1900-1948) made his way to the U.S. to become a painter in 1920. Having grown up haunted by memories of his alternately idyllic and terrifying childhood-his family fled the Turks' genocide of Armenians in 1915-he changed his name and created a new identity for himself in America. As an artist, Gorky bridged the generation of the surrealists and that of the abstract expressionists and was a very influential figure among the latter. His work was an inspiration to Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, among others. Matthew Spender illuminates this world as he tells the story of Gorky's life and career. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gorky's son in law
Matthew Spender has something to offer for someone really curious about this artists work. I have been comparing the three biographies. Herrara's book has been much acclaimed. But, when it comes to getting into the nitty -gritty of an artist's work, Spender is better. Particularly when he writes of his work in the fields of Virginia.None of the other writers have really tackled this important part of Gorky's art. As a sculpture Spender must have wondered would Gorkylike me and my work.The Armenian backgound has been covered by quite a few books. None can surpass some of Spenders insight into Gorky's creative process.A shortcomihg of this biography is the lack of color reproductions of the paintings.His choice of photos of the family of Gorky ,give us a glimpse of his background. The paper back (a catalogue )"the breakthrough years /Arshile Gorky" would be a good companionbook of this bio as it has ample repros and an essay by Spender among others ;Aupling for one.Herrara,Mattosian,Rosenberg,and other books on Gorky have fewer references to their books :in the Retrospective catalogue by the Philadelphia Museum of Art than Spender.Why? he raises questions about Gorky's work and life.On Gertrude Stein's deathbed she said to Alice B. Toklas,No alice it isn't the answers..its the Questions! I find that I refer to this book more than many of the other books on Gorky .I have 17 plus an old Arts issue dedicated to Gorky.

Armenian Modern
Matthew Spender, son of poet Stephen, is a good writer who does a deft job of weaving his research into a lively story. But being the husband of Gorky's oldest daughter limits his interests to the "family" side of the artist's life: to hear Spender tell it, Gorky lived through three decades of New York's modern art revolution dreaming of butterchurns back in Armenia. He never really explains what drove Gorky to become an artist, let alone an abstract modern artist, in the face of family pressures, the trials of being an immigrant, and the burden he carried as a survivor of the Armenian genocide.

Gorky's idyllic memories of childhood clearly played a major role in his life and art, but so did Picasso and Cezanne, whose style he copied until the breakthrough near the end of his life. Spender plays down the endless hours Gorky spent in front of the canvas trying to insert himself into the history of Western art, preferring to read the artist's somewhat restricted interests (he steered clear of the tumultuous politics of Thirties New York, avoided bohemia, and refused to theorize about the inner sources of his art) as a gauge of how deeply Armenia held him. Maybe. But more attention to the exciting world his work unfolded in would have helped to explain Gorky's achievement a little more clearly. Hayden Herrera's more recent "Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work" may have replaced this biography and is probably the better place to turn for learning more about his life.
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Nominated for the Pulizter Prize, "the definitive biography of Arshile Gorky--lucid, persuasive, intimate and refreshingly clear-eyed" (Andrew Solomon, The New York Times Book Review)

Born in Turkey around 1900, Vosdanik Adoian escaped the massacres of Armenians in 1915 only to watch his mother die of starvation and his family scatter in their flight from the Turks. Arriving in America in 1920, Adoian invented the pseudonym Arshile Gorky-and obliterated his past. Claiming to be a distant cousin of the novelist Maxim Gorky, he found work as an art teacher and undertook a program of rigorous study, schooling himself in the modern painters he most admired, especially Cézanne and Picasso. By the early forties, Gorky had entered his most fruitful period and developed the style that is seen as the link between European modernism and American abstract expressionism. His masterpieces influenced the great generation of American painters in the late forties, even as Gorky faced a series of personal catastrophes: a studio fire, cancer, and a car accident that temporarily paralyzed his painting arm. Further demoralized by the dissolution of his seven-year marriage, Gorky hanged himself in 1948.

A sympathetic, sensitive account of artistic and personal triumph as well as tragedy, Hayden Herrera's biography is the first to interpret Gorky's work in depth. The result of more than three decades of scholarship-and a lifelong engagement with Gorky's paintings-Arshile Gorky traces the progress from apprentice to master of the man André Breton called "the most important painter in American history."
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Customer Reviews (3)

Gorky comes alive
I became interested in Arshil Gorky after watching, "Ararat," Atom Egoyan's masterful film about the Armenian holocaust.I knew nothing about his art or his place in the annals of art history.Hayden Herrera does a wonderful job giving us a portrait of a troubled eccentric who is also a genius.In particular, she does a terrific job showing his complicated relationship with his homeland.His wife didn't learn until after Gorky was dead that he was Armenian.He told her he was Russian.Herrera also does a good job of interpreting his art, helping the reader make sense of his semi-abstractions.The book includes more than one hundred prints of his artwork and that helps show his artistic journey.

The book is less successful in providing a look at the milieu of New York City art world.There is much discussion in a summary way about the conflicted role Gorky held in relationship to the surrealists but I didn't get a good sense of who the surrealists were and how they interacted with Gorky.Nor are we sure of how Gorky interacted with the abstract expressionists.Some of this failing maybe intentional as Herrera focuses on Gorky's marriage in the nineteen forties and quotes extensively from his wife's letters.Herrera may feel that her job is to help us understand the man through the most significant relationship in his life rather than by focusing his relationship with his peers.

Despite these failings, I think this biography provides an extremely vivid portrait of Gorky the man and the artist.Although his life was often hard and he died relatively young (at age 48), Gorky emerges from these pages a glorious artist who created art that was both self-consciously derivative and highly original.Go figure!

A Fitting Successor
This book is a fitting successor to Frida. Both books tell the story of tragic lives made triumphant through art. Both brilliantly evoke their respective art worlds in the first half of the last century. They also evoke the tumultuous political, economic, and social world of the times. The writing is graceful and clear. Herrera talks about paintings, realistic and abstract, with believablity and intelligence. The great empathy she shows for her subjects also illumines the aesthetic discussions. This is an heroic story of an artist overwhelmed by circumstance. Herrera's understanding of how experience molds character, how character lies at the foundation of art, her restraint and eye for significance, her effortless prose, make this as fine a biography as Frida. Both artists are lucky to have found such a biographer!

A Fitting Successor
This book is a fitting successor to Frida. Both books tell the story of tragic lives made triumphant through art. Both brilliantly evoke their respective art worlds in the first half of the last century. They also evoke the tumultuous political, economic, and social world of the times. The writing is graceful and clear. Herrera talks about paintings, realistic and abstract, with believablity and intelligence. The great empathy she shows for her subjects also illumines the aesthetic discussions. This is an heroic story of an artist overwhelmed by circumstance. Herrera's understanding of how experience molds character, how character lies at the foundation of art, her restraint and eye for significance, her effortless prose, make this as fine a biography as Frida. Both artists are lucky to have found such a biographer! ... Read more

Product Description
Born on the shores of Armenia's Lake Van, Arshile Gorky immigrated to the United States in 1920 and went on to become one of the greatest American painters of the twentieth century. Gorky was both a forefather to and a seminal figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement years before Pollock and Motherwell, he found ways to extend Surrealist dream imagery into a uniquely American abstraction, simply by pursuing Surrealism's insistence on the authenticity of interior experience freely transcribed on canvas--also the logic of much New York Abstract Expressionism. For Gorky this was no easy endeavor: critic Meyer Schapiro called him a "fervent scrutinizer" of paintings, an ability corroborated by his close friend Willem de Kooning (whose own painting owes much to Gorky): "for some mysterious reason, he knew lots more about painting, and art... He had an extraordinary gift for hitting the nail on the head." Although Gorky's life was cut short by his suicide in 1948, the tremendously influential legacy that he left behind has secured his reputation as the last of the great Surrealist painters and one of the first Abstract Expressionists. Here, reproductions of key works are accompanied by Gorky's own writings and a collection of interviews. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

insightful
If you want a smaller book on the 2010 retrospective this is a smart choice. The repros are not as replete as the big catalogue. The quality of the photos are of good quality.The photos are well placed throughout the discussion.This bookis written with the 2010 exhibit in mind.I am disappointed with the articles and interviews in this book.As I ordered the book with his writings in mind.I have themin other books.Overall I can read it and look at with ease as the Taylor book tires me when I try to read it in an easy chair.The big cocktail table books need a table to read it on. .The author discusses how the formal means are used for expressiveness and good effect.His precise drawing separates him from the more generalizedefforts of other New York artist of this period.In a period that is crowded with work that isn't related to painting reading about Gorky helps me to continue to believe in painting as a force in modern culture.An Amazon purchase. Winston Hough ... Read more

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The first full-scale new biography of Arshile Gorky, the charismatic, controversial genius of 20th Century art.

Arshile Gorky is one of the most mysterious of major twentieth-century artists. Born Armenian, he adopted the cover of a famous Russian name, and paradoxically helped to change the course of American art. The art critic Robert Hughes wrote in The Shock of the New, "Gorky's life as a mature artist formed a kind of Bridge of Sighs between Surrealism and America; he was the last major painter Breton claimed for Surrealism and the first Abstract Expressionist as well." In this first full-scale biography, Nouritza Matossian charts Gorky's tumultuous life from his childhood to his evolution into a key figure on the New York art scene of the 30s and 40s to his tragic last years.

Handsome and deeply intense about art, he cut a dramatic figure among the Abstract Expressionists, influencing a generation of painters including de Kooning, Rothko, and Pollack. This powerfully revealing biography sheds crucial new light on Gorky's passionate life and monumental legacy.

"A profoundly moving, illuminating biography leaves us with the image of a man of monumental will and spirit, who embraced life with every fibre, and whose sufferings never undermined his integrity either as a man or as an artist."--The Independent ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fascinating man / Great artist
"Warts & all"

Here is a fascinating and loveable soul/

A CANNOT PUT DOWN READ/

This read made me appreciate his painting much more/ backgroundREALLY enlightens imagery here/

& Photos, too / Here was oneintriguinglooking fellow,to attest/

One of the most enjoyable bios I have yet read

And for the used price,you can't go wrong ...

Arshile Opus
Nouritza Matossian's Black Angel: A Life of Arhile Gorky is for the most part a riveting read on a difficult artist.It is easy to dismiss Gorky's mature style as just the latest Abstract Expressionist fashion when in fact it preceded many of that movement's most important works, serving in the process as a bridge from surrealism to abstract expressionism.Perhaps more than any other contemporary abstract painters, Gorky's background is crucial in terms of understanding his artistic vision. As such, Matossian does an incredible job of giving the reader the entire scope of this background, sometimes to the point of tedium.The book,however, though over 500 pages long, has an easy pace to it for the most part, and definitely lets the reader in on what surely must have been one of the most frustrating lives, from beginning to end, of any major artist in the 20th century.Gut-wrenching at times, Matossian's portrait of Gorky's life is a miracle: juxtaposing the lyrical work he produced with the unfortunate string of incidents that plagued this sensitive human being.If you are interested in understanding more about Arshile Gorky, then the sheer scope of this undertaking is a great place to start.

Worthy of a great artist
Allow me to add an "amen" to the previous reviews.Matossian's background in Armenian culture is a great advantage in exploring Gorky's childhood, and her obvious patience in organizing material from the many first-hand interviews of Gorky's survivors pays off in a vivid, scrupulously detailed account of his rise and cataclysmic final years.As an arist I brought a huge respect and admiration for Gorky's work to the book, and wasn't disappointed to find that the Gorky the author describes matches the intensity and dazzle and complexity of the works.So vivid was her writing that the ending left me moved almost to tears.This is our American Van Gogh, a giant arguably greater than Pollock, and his story is one of the great tragic--and ultimately triumphant--dramas in all of biography.

Life changing book
I read this book during a recent illness and I am glad of it because I was able to concentrate fully and stay within the world which the author so skilfully evokes. I have rarely found a biography of an artist, especially a modern one, so lovingly and painstakingly portrayed with brushstrokes just like a painter to produce image after image and make the man come alive in such an engaging way.I learned about the history of the ARMENIANS but through his eyes and yet the scholarship and objectivity shone through. So many insights and beautiful stories, such a strong sense of place, whether in long-lost Armenia or Boston of the 20s or New YOrk of the 30s and 4os , the characters who weave through this incredible tapestry, no a carpet. This writer belongs to the tradition of Armenian troubadours who were storytellers and sang their songs in verse in many languages. I felt the narrative had a poetic lilt and yet she kept back her obvious involvement in the subject.In her introduction which is worthy of attention Nouritza Matossian tells of her own family and their wanderings because of the Genocide, her desire to keep an even balance and not to succumb to the despair of her foretfathers. This book is a vindication of a culture which has been hammered and a Genocide which needs to be acknowledged. It tells of the courage of exiles and immigrants who brought such skills and moral values to this country which did not accept them very often. The accounts of Gorky's pursuit of excellence in art, his love for his mother and her inspiration are universal themes. I saw him as a quixotic, temperamental and charming character whom I would have loved to know. She brought him alive and I cared for him so much that I could hardly bear to finish the book, knowing that he would die. I received a great gift in understanding how it is possible for someone who has lived at traumatic life to transcend his suffering and 'give something to the world' as he said to Leger, something good. His paintings are incredibly beautiful and I see l know that he paid an even greater price than the loss of his childhood for those canvases, he paid for them with his health and security. Gorky's suicide has always puzzled me and I understand it for the first time after reading Matossian's book twice.The discussion of art and ideas, her ability to interpret him and even to depict the work is accurate and vivid. I saw from her website www.arshile-gorky.com that she performs a one-woman show in which she tells his story with slides and music as his mother, sister, sweetheart and wife. Those four characters are in the book and she pays tribute to them. It must be wonderful to hear this author tell her extraordinary story in her own words because this is a book which rings with her love and commitment for her subject and that is a rare and generous gift. All I could wish is that this book were even longer because I hated putting it down at the end. It changed my attitude to many things in my own life. This book deserves to win prizes.

Troubled Youth
For anyone convinced that crucial or shocking events during childhood have a major impact on psyche, this book is a must read to understand Gorky's art and his impact on American art.It is also an enlighting read to better understand the rituals, culture, and methods used by Gorky's(Adoian's) Armenian kin to survive (or not survive!) opression at the handsof the Ottoman Turks.Matossian points to the ancient Armenianarchitecture, illuminated manuscripts, stone crosses, among other objectswhich Gorky saw and experienced as a child and which left a powerfulimprint on his future art.Once some of these objects are seen, it iseasier to understand the origin of Gorky's shapes, colors, and titles ofhis masterpieces.

Besides the extensive research that took Matossian toGorky's Armenia, her knowledge of the Armenian language gives powerfulinsight into the letters written by Gorky in his native tongue to hisfamily.Fantastic book which is part history, biography, art history,psychology, criticism and reads like a compeling historical novel! ... Read more

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Arshile Gorky ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Top monograph on Gorky
This book is valuable for the general art lover as well as art history researcher. Schwabacher was encouraged to write this book as someone who had first hand knowledge of Arshile. She was his pupil and supporter.I just compared : Mouritza ,Herrera ,Spender biographys on Gorky. I read their interpretations of "the artist and his mother." I think Ethel's is the most insightful.Hers was the first published. The influences evident in this important painting are in her book,prior to the others.She brings warmth to her discussion. Something no other writer can give...The others are looking at him from letters and other family sources. The color reproductions in this volume are larger and better reproductions of many other books. Herreras are small. Waldman's writing for the "retrospective of Gorky'' is dependent on Schwabachers book. The repros are more plentiful. But, the Schwabacher book are more selective. Those chosen for her book are my favorites.I must add" Re-thinking Arshile Gorky" to the books that refer to Schwabacher.One of the points that Gorky made to Ethel was: in order to paint one must create experiences that will stimulate you to work.With all of the new books on Gorky this book is sure to become more valuable.You may not be able to buy art from the top artist but, a book like this will become more valuable. At the moment this book is at a low price.04-25-10 :I note that in the new Arshile Gorky by Robert Mattison, a text full of insight,that he quotes from Schwabacher. He should as it is a prime source . In the increased interest represented by current show a retrospective. There is a re-evaluation of A. Gorky. Books such as this are bound to rise in value. ... Read more

Product Description
Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) was a seminal figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. His drawings are beautiful, complex, and sensual creations, the products of a technical mastery that bespoke a new power of abstraction within modern art. They are also pivotal to the understanding of his art and play a major part in the development and realization of his paintings. This handsome volume, and the exhibition it accompanies-the first retrospective ever assembled of this influential artist's drawings-focus on how Gorky's drawings function both in relation to his paintings and as individual works of art.

Gorky's changing styles and precise approach to drawing are discussed in detail, and contrasted with the spontaneous and direct execution generally associated with Abstract Expressionism. The works range from small, intimate drawings to major, large-scale pieces; all are reproduced in superb full color. These rich and evocative drawings are an inspiration to new generations of artists and art lovers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Profusion of Gorky Drawings
This catalogue by the Whitney Museum has provided us with some new material. Many drawings that would require you to buy many small books on Gorky. In the case of Gorky where does drawing stop and painting begin?Line and color are interwoven successfully so it is both ,it is drawing that dominates his output... Subject matter is subordinate to the feeling conveyed by formal means.Sensitive feeing is the strong point . Not the harsh line of many of the German expressionist.The late work was inspired by Miro,Matta,Kandinsky. But his use of line is so individual and strong that these artists are forgotten when looking at Arshile Gorky.Janie Lee's "Power of Drawing" has some insightful points But, when she refers to Diebenkorn and Mangold as influenced by him ,her choice of images seem inappropriate. Early Diebenkorn yes, but, the geometric drawings and paintings don't resonate with any influence from him.Gorky is a rejection of Mondrian and geometric abstraction.I welcome Gorky's inspiration with line. Gorky wasn't a surrealist as much as a classicist. In fact, the abstract expressionist were neo-classicist.Motherwell makes a sarcastic remark about Gorky in his interview on the Walker gallery that is available on line.He said: "Gorky is the greatest technician in 20th century art!You can't forget Miro when you look at Motherwell, broader gesture ,but the basic image and format are the same. It is the charge of sensuality and sensitivity that makes Gorky so strong. Winston Hough ... Read more

Product Description
Harry Rand's critically acclaimed study of Gorky's brief, troubled life and artistic development is finally available in paperback.All of Gorky's major themes are touched on and his major paintings dealt with in some depth, with attention to the details of the individual works, and frequently to the drawings and preliminary studies from which the paintings evolved. The discussion centers on the images that united the pieces as they develop from work to work. Rand explores Gorky as well as possible sources and their relationship to the body of Gorky's art. A concluding chapter reassesses Gorky's impact on the New York School in light of a new understanding of his aims and methods.Through close study of Gorky's oeuvre, the author deciphers an iconography revealing the unexpected and systematic use of explicit ideas and symbols as well as commonplace objects, settings, and personas from the artist's life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent, Readable Analysis
A well structured thorough analysis of the formal derivations, composition and media techniques of this extremely important artist. One always wishes for endless illustrations so that the reader could extend the engaging search of motives revealed in the analysis. There are easily enough illustrations here to tempt you. An excellent companion to any illustrated collection of the artist's paintings and drawings.

Lacking Visual
Harry Rand's Book "The Implication of Symbols" is indeed well-written and full of important information.Furthermore, his interpretation of the symbolic aspects of Gorky's work as it relates to his life is competent stuff.But here's where to start with a book on visual art: how many paintings does the book show, and of these, how many are in color.An art book discussing artwork that is either not shown in the book, or that is shown only in black and white (when a colorplate is crucial), is a frustrating read.At $..., one expects more than 15 color plates, some of which are poorly reproduced.I'm grateful for the information Mr. Rand provides, but greatly disappointed at the amount of work reproduced in what could otherwise be a complete presentation of the artist and his painting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

limited color reproductions
Although ,this book has good commentary on Gorky's work I don't find it anymore insightful than any other Gorky book. The Julian LevyGorky bookhas many more color reproductions . TheLevy has reprosthat are full page.Other books have several repros per page such as Herrara's book.The Jordan/Goldwater book has mostly black and white photos.As the sub-title is CRITICAL CATALOGUE ;not catalogue raissone it doesn't attempt to be the latter. If it was a catalogue raissone it would be more than one volume. Gorky's output was immense take a look at the catalogue on Gorky's drawings published for an exhibit of drawings at the Whitney Museum. It is a very large book. Many of the drawings that are in it are not in the Jordan book.Drawing was very important to Gorky. It was also very important to Stuart Davis, the catalogue raissone recently published on Davisis three volumes.To be a catalogue raissone at 975 dollars it deserves all the work ,such as the Stuart Davis. I bought mine at Amazon at a reasonable price.Color plates of Gorky are in demand. If you go to the library and look at the books on Gorky many plates will be removed. When Mooradian Gorky's nephew exhibited works that he owned at the Evanston Art Center(years ago) many of the works were stolen. This book is no larger than the other monographs on the artist.In fact it is listed in all of the bibliographys of Gorky as a monograph. Since the Whitney Museum Retrospective of drawings amore recent production it seems to me out-dated.I have found repros that are verticle that are horizontal . I went to the Hirshorn Gallery of American art and found some lovely paintings that I was able to print.If there was an up-date of A. Gorky that included all of the work such as the S. Davis catalogue I would pay the price. until then I will look at it at the local library.The Stuart Davis catalogue raissonne is a better series of volumes and it is handsomely bound. Gorky deserves books equal to Davis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A good bargain book on Gorky.
This edition is a good overview of the life and work of Gorky, at a very affordable price.Not the most scholarly volume about this very important abstract-expressionist painter, but for the price it is a very useful addition to any art library.

valuable book on Gorky
Lader has done an excellent job of delineating Gorky's work. The color reproductions are fair.They are not top of the line but,then very few books on Gorky have good repros. I find the back sections on Gorky's theory and his techniques interesting. Gorky states his case that he is aclassical artist. His interest in the old masters backs this up..such as Ucello.an index and these special sections help to look things up when you want to reviewhis ideas and ambitions for art.The paperback edition will serve you well. It is light enough to put in your kit bag and carry it with you something that Gorky deserves. ... Read more

Product Description
Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Robert Motherwell, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Willi Mayerhofer, Per Kirkeby, Modest Cuixart, Allan Kaprow, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Mark Tobey, Hans Hofmann, Joan Mitchell, Gottfried Mairwöger, Michael Heckert, Alfred Jensen, Luis Feito, Richard Allen Morris, Clyfford Still, Alfonso Ossorio, Helen Berman, Valeska, Franz Kline, Paul Jenkins, James Brooks, Bernard Childs, Adolph Gottlieb, Conrad Marca-Relli, Kenzo Okada, Al Held, Norman Bluhm, Jean René Bazaine, Richard Pousette-Dart, Grace Hartigan, Jack Tworkov, Ibram Lassaw, Rafael Canogar, Sergei Sviatchenko, Christina Allzeit, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Watts, Michael Goldberg, John Marin, Anna-Eva Bergman, Ugo Attardi, William Baziotes, Theodoros Stamos,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Willem de Kooning (* 24. April 1904 in Rotterdam; † 19. März 1997 in Springs, Long Island, New York) war ein US-amerikanischer Maler niederländischer Herkunft. Er war einer der bedeutendsten Vertreter des Abstrakten Expressionismus und gilt neben Jackson Pollock als Wegbereiter des Action Paintings. Willem de Kooning war das jüngste der fünf Kinder und zugleich der einzige Junge von Leendert de Kooning, einem Weinhändler und Getränkefabrikanten, und Cornelia Nobel, einer Barfrau aus dem Norden von Rotterdam. Seine Geschwister waren die 1899 geborene älteste Schwester Maria Cornelia, die 1901 geborenen und noch im selben Jahr verstorbenen Zwillinge Cornelia und Adriana, sowie die 1902 geborene und ein Jahr später verstorbene zweite Cornelia. Die Eltern trennten sich als Willem gerade zwei Jahre alt war un...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=146747 ... Read more