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Photo: © Courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
D1262
[Untitled]
1946
Graphite pencil and crayon on paper
19 1/8 x 25 1/8 in. (48.6 x 63.8 cm)
Recto, in pencil, lower right: A Gorky 46
Verso not inscribed
Verso not inscribed
Provenance
Exhibitions
New School Art Center, New York, Museum Leaders Collect: Selections from the Private Collections of Ten New York Museum Directors and Curators, April 24–May 27, 1970, no. 17, ill. in b/w, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 50th Anniversary Gifts, June 3–August 31, 1980, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Decade of Transition: 1940–1950, April 30–July 12, 1981, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Drawing Acquisitions, 1978–1981, September 17–November 15, 1981, ill. in b/w, p. 37, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Art in Place: Fifteen Years of Acquisitions, July 7–October 29, 1989, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, Drawing Acquisitions, 1980–1991: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, June 12–September 5, 1991, as "Drawing".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings, November 20, 2003–February 15, 2004, no. 109, ill. in color, p. 189; p. 244, as "Untitled". Traveled to: Menil Collection, Houston, March 5–May 9, 2004.
Literature
"50th Anniversary Gifts." Bulletin of the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) 2 (Fall 1980), discussed p. 61, as "Drawing".
Beredjiklian, Alexandre. Arshile Gorky: sept thèmes majeurs. Suresnes, France: Alphamédian & Johanet; Lisbon: Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 2007. Monograph, discussed p. 71, as "Sans titre".
Notes
Verso, in pencil, lower right [not in artist's hand]: 82.48
The verso inscription information and marking are known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.
Commentary
The first owner of the drawing was the American painter Ethel Kremer Schwabacher (1903–1984) who met Gorky in New York in 1928. Between January 1934 and 1935, their friendship deepened as she and fellow patron Mina Boehm Metzger (1877–1975) shared private lessons with the artist, meeting at his 36 Union Square studio three afternoons a week for three hours. Ethel and her husband, Wolfgang Schwabacher (m. 1935; 1898–1951), remained devoted patrons of Gorky's work throughout their lives. In 1957, Ethel published the first monograph on Gorky (Schwabacher 1957).
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