Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Catalogue Entry

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Photo: © Princeton University Art Museum / Art Resource, NY
D0152
[Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia: Objects]
c. 1931–32
Ink on laid paper
12 3/8 x 14 7/16 in. (31.4 x 36.7 cm) (irregular)
Not inscribed
Exhibitions
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, Princeton Alumni Collections: Works on Paper, April 26–June 21, 1981, ill. in b/w, p. 232, as "Untitled".
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, West to Wesselmann: American Drawings and Watercolors in the Princeton University Art Museum, October 16, 2004–January 9, 2005, no. 67, pp. 260–63; ill. in color, p. 261; p. 316, as "Untitled," dated c. 1931/33. Traveled to: Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny, France, April 1–July 3, 2005; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, April 1–June 25, 2006.
Literature
Wilmerding, John. "Checklist of the Collection of Drawings and Watercolors." In American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum, Volume 1: Drawings and Watercolors. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. Exhibition catalogue, no. 414, p. 316, as "Untitled".
Notes

Verso, in pencil, lower right [not in artist's hand]: 81–65

The verso inscription information and marking are known from a photograph provided by Princeton University Art Museum.

Commentary

In 1929, Gorky began a series of abstract works which is now referred to as "Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia." While he continued working on this until 1936, it was between 1931 and 1934 when he was most dedicated to developing the composition. Ultimately, he produced nearly one hundred drawings and three related paintings. The body of work can be divided into subsets, such as Objects and Enigma, which were Gorky's own titles, as well as the posthumously titled "Fish and Head," "Column with Objects" and "Écorché." This drawing is part of the subset Objects, of which there are thirty-two known examples. Its title derives from that which Gorky gave to the drawing D0140, when it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in January 1941 (see that work's commentary). 

According to a 1991 letter from Princeton University Art Museum to the Gorky scholar Melvin P. Lader, the right side of the drawing was "torn off and destroyed while in the donor's possession."1

1. Letter from Barbara T. Ross, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Princeton University Art Museum, to Melvin P. Lader, July 16, 1991, Melvin P. Lader Papers, AGF Archives.

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