Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky was known to have proposed his muse, artist Corinne Michelle West multiple times for marriage but she refused.

In 1941, he married Agnes Magruder, daughter of Admiral John H. Magruder. The couple had two daughters, Maro and Yalda. Yalda was later renamed Natasha. In 1946, Agnes Magruder was romantically involved with artist Roberto Matta and two years later she left with her kids and married British writer Xan Fielding.

Arshile Gorky faced multiple catastrophes in 1946, when his studio was burnt down, and the same year he had to undergo a painful colostomy surgery for rectal cancer. Two years later, he met with an accident, which temporarily paralyzed his painting arm.

Arshile Gorky was born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, on 15 April 1904 at Khorgom in Ottoman Empire to Setrag Adoian and Shushanig (Shushan) der Marderosian. His father was a trader.

Arshile Gorky had a half brother Hagop, and three half sisters - Oughaper, Sima and Akabi from his parents’ earlier marriages. He had two siblings - an older sister, Satenig born in 1901 and a younger sister, Vartoosh.

His father left the family and migrated to America in 1908. Post the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Arshile Gorkey escaped into Russian territory with his mother and sister, Vartoosh. However, his mother died of starvation in 1919.

In 1920, Arshile Gorky went to the United States with his younger sister. Upon arriving in America, he changed his name to ‘Arshile Gorky’ in an attempt to reinvent his identity. In 1922, he attended the Scott Carbee School of Art in Boston for a brief period.

Arshile Gorky settled in New York in 1924, and enrolled in the National Academy of Design and the Grand Central School of Art. Later, by 1925 he became an instructor at the Grand Central School of Art and taught there till 1931.

He received minimal formal training and was primarily self- taught, observing works at museums, galleries and reading magazines and books on art. By doing so he became accustomed to the avant-garde European art and went on to learn more about its pioneers such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Joan Miró.

At the beginning of his career, he was influenced by the works of ‘Impressionists’. But towards the end of the 1920s his art style shifted to be more ‘postimpressionist’.

Most noted works during this period were ‘Landscape, Staten Island’ (1927–1928), ‘Landscape in the Manner of Cézanne’ (1927). Towards the end of the 1920s and beginning of the next decade, he began experimenting with cubism and later moving on to surrealism.

He faced criticism from his peers who said his work lacked originality. Nevertheless, Arshile Gorky emphasized the significance of preserving and carrying forward tradition and stated that any artist can grow only after a period of apprenticeship.

Arshile Gorky was a renowned painter known for his works on ‘abstract expressionism’. His notable works include ‘Landscape in the Manner of Cézanne’ (1927), ‘Nighttime, Enigma, Nostalgia’ (1930–1934) and ‘The Liver is the Cock's Comb’ (1944).