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Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Paul Hester; © The Menil Collection, Houston
D1117
(Untitled)
1944
Graphite pencil and crayon on paper
19 x 24 in. (48.3 x 61 cm)
Recto, in pencil, lower left: A. Gorky / 44
Verso not inscribed
The Menil Collection, Houston,
Anonymous gift in memory of Marion Barthelme (2011-042)
Provenance
The artist
Julien Levy Gallery, New York (December 21, 1944)
Julien Levy, Bridgewater, Connecticut (1949)
[Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (by 1957)]
[M. Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York (April 29, 1968)]
[Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago (by May 24, 1972)]
[Dunkelman Gallery, Toronto (July 18, 1972)]
[Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (after October 1972)]
Julien Levy, Bridgewater, Connecticut (April 23, 1976)
Estate of Julien Levy (1981)
[Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Julien Levy Collection, November 4, 1981, lot 28]
Likely Marcos Grigorian / Gorky Gallery, New York (November 4, 1981)
[Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, October 31, 1984, lot 5]
Asher B. Edelman, New York (October 31, 1984)
[C&M Arts, New York (by 1995)]
Southwestern Bell Corporate Collection, San Antonio (April 1995)
[Martha Parrish & James Reinish Inc., New York (2001)]
Gagosian Gallery, New York (January 26, 2002)
Private collection (January 2002)
[Christie's, New York, Post-War and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale, November 12, 2008, lot 53]
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (likely November 12, 2008)
Private collection (2008)
Menil Collection, Houston, by gift (2011)
Exhibitions
1945a New York possibly
Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, March 6–31, 1945. (Exhibition brochure: Breton 1945b).
1959b New York
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, Late Drawings by Gorky, September 28–October 24, 1959. (Exhibition catalogue: Sidney Janis Gallery 1959), no. 4, ill. in b/w, as "Drawing".
1969c New York
M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky, de Kooning, Newman, June 26–September 20, 1969, as "Landscape".
1969e New York
M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky: Drawings, November 25–December 27, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: Jordan 1969), no. 80, ill. in b/w, p. 38; p. 59, as "Landscape".
1972 Toronto
Dunkelman Gallery, Toronto, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, October 14–20, 1972, no. 21, ill. in b/w, as "Untitled".
1973a New York
Richard L. Feigen and Co, New York, Paintings and Drawings of Arshile Gorky, January–February 1973, no. 10, as "Untitled".
1974–75 Düsseldorf
Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Surrealität-Bildrealität, 1924–1974, December 8, 1974–February 2, 1975, no. 107, p. 82; ill. in b/w, p. 170, as "Untitled / Ohne Titel". Traveled to: Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany, February 14–April 13, 1975.
1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 177c, [not in catalogue]. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
1987 Zurich
Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Zurich, Impressionism & 20th Century Masters: Selected Works from the Collection of Asher B. Edelman, June 17–September 18, 1987, no. 7, ill. in color, as "Untitled".
1997–98 Houston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, American Images: The SBC Collection of Twentieth Century American Art, November 9, 1997–January 25, 1998, no. 61, ill. in color, p. 132, as "Untitled". Traveled to: Austin Museum of Art, Texas, February 14–May 10, 1998; Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, June 13–September 5, 1998; El Paso Museum of Art, Texas, September 25–December 1998.
2003–04b New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings, November 20, 2003–February 15, 2004, as "Untitled". Traveled to: Menil Collection, Houston, March 5–May 9, 2004.
2013 Houston
Menil Collection, Houston, Late Surrealism, May 24–August 25, 2013, as "Untitled".
Literature
Schwabacher 1957
Schwabacher, Ethel. Arshile Gorky. Introduction by Meyer Schapiro. New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1957. Monograph, fig. 37, ill. in b/w, p. 85, as "Drawing".
Calas 1959b
Calas, Nicolas. "Caligula, 1959." Artnews (New York) 58, no. 7 (November 1959), ill. in b/w, p. 39, as "Drawing".
Sidney Janis Gallery 1962
Paintings by Arshile Gorky from 1929 to 1948. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1962. Exhibition catalogue (1962b New York), no. 30, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "View, Gorky Exhibition of Drawings, October 1959".
Levy 1966
Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 125, ill. in b/w, p. 149, as "Drawing".
Ashton 1996
Ashton, Dore. "The Adventures of the New York School." In American Images: The SBC Collection of Twentieth Century American Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1996. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 31, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 121, as "Untitled".
Devaney 2017
Devaney, Edith. "Repossessing Nature." In Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943–47. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2017. Exhibition catalogue, ill. in color, p. 109, as "Untitled".
Spender and Devaney 2017
Spender, Saskia and Edith Devaney. Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943–47. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2017. Exhibition catalogue (2017 New York), ill. in color, p. 109; p. 138, as "Untitled".
Notes

Verso, in pencil, upper right [not in artist's hand]: No. 8; 18 5/8 x 23 [illegible] [sideways]; lower right: Julien Levy; 6 [circled and sideways]; 123-; in blue pen: J.L. 22; / in pencil: J.L. 22

The verso inscription information and marking are known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.

Commentary

The drawing was likely created at Crooked Run Farm during Gorky’s second summer there in 1944. In early May that year, the Gorky family left New York and returned to Crooked Run—the rural Lincoln, Virginia, home of Agnes "Mougouch" Gorky's (1921–2013) parents Esther (1896–1990) and John H. Magruder II (1889–1963)—this time staying for close to six months. It proved another creatively productive period for Gorky, who wrote to his younger sister, “I have drawn many new drawings which are among my best.”1 He was again captivated by his surroundings: the tall grasses, thistles, milkweed, and ragweed; reportedly lamenting, when the fields were mown, “they are cutting down the Raphaels.”2 The barn on the property, which Gorky temporarily repurposed as a studio, was populated with a collection of dried horse bones, “old rusty farm implements,” “bits of machinery,” and haystacks.3

Having reduced his activity as a dealer during the early years of the war, Julien Levy (1906–1981) moved his gallery to its final location, 42 East 57th Street, in March 1943. He signed a contract with Gorky in December 1944. Levy had known Gorky for over ten years at this point, without having shown an interest in representing his work. He offered the artist a contract following a recommendation from André Breton (1896–1966), who promised to write an introductory essay to Gorky’s debut solo show, which opened in March 1945.4 This drawing is among the first selection of works that Levy received from the artist on December 21, 1944. Based on this fact, it is probable, though unconfirmed, that it was included in the 1945 exhibition.

1. Letter from Arshile Gorky to Vartoosh Mooradian, c. 1944, Arshile Gorky/Mooradian Archive, Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, New York; Arshile Gorky to Vartoosh Mooradian, c. 1944, in Matthew Spender, ed., Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song: A Life in Letters and Documents, trans. Father Krikor Maksoudian (Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018), 307.

2. Arshile Gorky, as quoted in letter from Mougouch Gorky to Jeanne Reynal, Summer 1944, in Spender, ed., The Plow and the Song, 309.

3. Letter from Mougouch Gorky to Jeanne Reynal, November 1944, in ibid, 319-20.

4. Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, March 6–31, 1945.

Related Work
(To Project, To Conjure)1944 P289
(To Project, To Conjure)
1944
Oil on canvas
P289
Oil on canvas