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Photo: © Courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
P115
The Artist and His Mother
c. 1926–36
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 1/4 in. (152.4 x 127.6 cm)
Front, lower right: A. Gorky / [paraph] / 26–9
Reverse not seen
Reverse not seen
Provenance
The artist
Julien Levy, New York (1945)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, by gift (June 16, 1950)
Exhibitions
1946c New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fourteen Americans, September 10–December 8, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: Miller, D. 1946), no. 30, p. 77, as The Artist and His Mother.1951a New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky Memorial Exhibition, January 5–February 18, 1951, no. 4, ill. in b/w, p. 13; p. 46, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–29. Traveled to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, March 4–April 22, 1951; San Francisco Museum of Art, California, May 9–July 9, 1951.1952 Princeton
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, Arshile Gorky: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, October 6–26, 1952, no. 3, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–29.1957 Utica
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York, Portraiture: the 19th and 20th Centuries, March 31–April 21, 1957, no. 18, p. 30, as The Artist and His Mother. Traveled to: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1957; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, June 30–August 18, 1957; Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs.1962 Venice
XXXI Biennale di Venezia: Internazionale d'Arte, U.S. Pavillion, Venice, Italy, Arshile Gorky, June 16–October 7, 1962, no. 1, ill. in b/w, pl. 89; p. 113, as "Autoritratto con la madre," dated 1926–29.1962–63b New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, December 19, 1962–February 12, 1963. (Exhibition catalogue: Seitz 1962), no. 18, ill. in b/w, p. 19; p. 53, as The Artist and His Mother, dated c. 1926–36. Traveled to: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, D.C., March 12–April 14, 1963.1963 Washington, D.C.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., The New Tradition: Modern Americans Before 1940, April 27–June 2, 1963, no. 41, ill. in b/w, p. 35; p. 59, as The Artist and His Mother.1966a New York
Public Education Association, New York (organizer), Seven Decades, 1895–1965: Crosscurrents in Modern Art, April 16–May 21, 1966, no. 152, ill. in color, p. 90, as The Artist and His Mother.1968e New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The 1930's: Painting and Sculpture in America, October 15–December 1, 1968, no. 38, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.1974b New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Twentieth Century: 35 American Artists, An Exhibition of Works from the Permanent Collection, July 1–September 29, 1974, as The Artist and His Mother.1976b Washington, D.C.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The Golden Door: Artist Immigrants of America 1876–1976, May 20–October 20, 1976, no. 67, ill. in color, p. 197, as The Artist and His Mother.1978–79a New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Introduction to 20th Century American Art, October 10, 1978–September 23, 1979, as The Artist and His Mother.1978–79b New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, William Carlos Williams and the American Scene, 1920–1940, December 12, 1978–February 4, 1979, fig. 72, ill. in b/w, p. 104; discussed, pp. 103–105, as The Artist and His Mother.1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 75, ill. in color, p. 122, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–36. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.1992 New York
Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center, New York, American Masters: Six Artists from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, January 10–March 18, 1992, ill. in color, cover, as The Artist and His Mother. Traveled to: Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford, Connecticut, April 17–June 17, 1992.1993e New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art. Selections from the Permanent Collection, June 23–August 29, 1993, ill. in b/w, p. 16, as The Artist and His Mother.2002d New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: Portraits, March 20–April 27, 2002. (Exhibition catalogue: Gagosian Gallery 2002), ill. in color (detail), pp. 2–3, 18–19; ill. in color, pp. 20–21, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–36.2006–07 New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Picasso and American Art, September 28, 2006–January 28, 2007, pl. 53, ill. in color, p. 120; p. 384, as The Artist and His Mother. Traveled to: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, February 25–May 28, 2007; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, June 17–September 9, 2007.2008b New York
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), New York (organizer), St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, New York, Art @ the Cathedral: Giving Form to Faith, June 19–24, 2008, as The Artist and His Mother.2009–10 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 32, ill. in color, p. 190; p. 386, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–36. Traveled to: Tate Modern, London, February 10–May 3, 2010 (Gale 2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, June 6–September 20, 2010 (Gale 2010).2022 Washington, D.C.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900, July 10–October 31, 2022, no. 17, ill. in color, p. 74, as The Artist and His Mother.Literature
Hunter 1948b
Hunter, Sam. "Chiefly Abstract." New York Times, November 21, 1948, discussed, sec. 2, p. 9, as "Self Portrait with Mother".A.F. 1951
A.F. "Gorky Art On View at S.F. Museum." Pictorial Review (New York) (June 1951), discussed, p. 25, as "Artist With His Mother".Coates 1951
Coates, Robert M. "The Art Galleries." The New Yorker 26, no. 48 (January 20, 1951), discussed, p. 60, as The Artist and His Mother.de Kooning 1951
de Kooning, Elaine. "Gorky: Painter of his Own Legend." Artnews (New York) 49, no. 9 (January 1951), ill. in b/w, p. 39, as The Artist and His Mother.Goodrich 1951a
Goodrich, Lloyd. "Eight Works by Arshile Gorky with Notes by Lloyd Goodrich." Magazine of Art (Washington, D.C.) 44 (February 1951), ill. in b/w, p. 59, as The Artist and His Mother.Art Digest 1951b
"Gorky: Was He Tops or Second Rate." Art Digest (New York) 25 (January 15, 1951), ill. in b/w, p. 9, as The Artist and His Mother.Loftus 1952
Loftus, John. "Arshile Gorky: A Monograph." M.A. Thesis, Columbia University, New York, 1952, pl. IX, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Seitz 1952
Seitz, William C. "A Gorky Exhibit." The Daily Princetonian (Princeton, NJ), October 14, 1952, discussed, p. 2, as "the large portrait of the artist as a child with his mother".Mooradian 1955
Mooradian, Karlen. "Arshile Gorky." Armenian Review (Watertown, MA) 8, no. 2 (Summer 1955), ill. in b/w, p. 51, as The Artist and His Mother.Goodrich 1957
Goodrich, Lloyd. "Arshile Gorky." In New Art in America, John I.H. Baur, ed. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1957, ill. in color, p. 190, as The Artist and His Mother.Schwabacher 1957
Schwabacher, Ethel. Arshile Gorky. Introduction by Meyer Schapiro. New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1957. Monograph, pl. I, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Whitney Museum of American Art 1960
Whitney Museum of American Art. Whitney Museum of American Art: Catalogue of the Collection. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1960, discussed, p. 278, as The Artist and His Mother.Reiff 1961
Reiff, Robert F. "A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky's Art from 1943–1948." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1961, fig. 4, ill. in b/w, p. 282, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosenberg 1961
Rosenberg, Harold. "Arshile Gorky, His Art and His Influence." Portfolio & Artnews Annual (New York), no. 5 (1961), ill. in color, p. 101, as The Artist and His Mother.Boatto 1962
Boatto, Alberto. "L'itinerario di Gorky." Arte Oggi (Rome) 14 (June–December 1962), discussed, p. 11, as "L'artista e sua madre".Goldwater 1962
Goldwater, Robert. "The Genius of the Moujik." Review of Arshile Gorky: The Man, the Time, the Idea, by Harold Rosenberg. Saturday Review (New York) 45 (May 19, 1962), ill. in b/w, p. 38, as The Artist and His Mother.New York Herald Tribune 1962
"At the Venice Biennale . . ." New York Herald Tribune (Paris), June 20, 1962, ill. in b/w, p. 6, as "Artist and His Mother".O'Hara 1962
O'Hara, Frank. "Art Chronicle." Kulchur (New York) 2, no. 6 (Summer 1962), discussed, p. 55, as "Portrait of the Artist as "a Boy, with his Mother".Show 1962
"Art." Show (Hartford, CT) 2, no. 12 (December 1962), ill. in b/w (detail), p. 37, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosenberg 1962a
Rosenberg, Harold. Arshile Gorky: The Man, the Time, the Idea. New York: Horizon Press, 1962. Monograph, ill. in b/w, p. 21, as The Artist and His Mother.Micacchi 1962–63
Micacchi, Dario. "Enigma e nostalgia di Archile Gorky." l'Unità (Rome), July 14, 1962. In Color and Rhyme nos. 51 and 52 (1962–63). Hampton Bays, NY, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 8, as "L'artista e sua madre".Alloway 1963
Alloway, Lawrence. "Gorky." Artforum (San Francisco) 1, no. 9 (March 1963), ill. in b/w, p. 28, as The Artist and His Mother.Life 1963
"Life Guide: Art: New York." Life (New York) 54, no. 2 (January 11, 1963), discussed, p. 18, as The Artist and His Mother.Osborn 1963
Osborn, Margaret. "The Mystery of Arshile Gorky: A Personal Account." Artnews (New York) 61, no. 10 (February 1963), ill. in b/w, p. 42, as The Artist and His Mother.Preston 1963
Preston, Stuart. "New York." The Burlington Magazine (London) 105, no. 719 (February 1963), ill. in b/w, p. 76, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosenberg 1963
Rosenberg, Harold. "The Art Galleries: Art and Identity: The Unfinished Masterpiece." The New Yorker 38, no. 46 (January 5, 1963), discussed, pp. 70–71, 74–77, as The Artist and His Mother.Genauer 1964
Genauer, Emily. "Painting What The Camera Saw." New York Herald Tribune, October 25, 1964, ill. in b/w, p. 33, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosenberg 1964
Rosenberg, Harold. "Arshile Gorky: Art and Identity." In The Anxious Object: Art Today and its Audience. New York: Horizon Press, 1964, ill. in b/w, p. 138, as The Artist and His Mother.Levy 1966
Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 21, ill. in color, p. 45, as The Artist and His Mother, dated c. 1926–29.Time 1966
"Art: Exhibitions." Time (New York) 87, no. 18 (May 6, 1966), ill. in b/w, p. 70, as "Artist & His Mother," dated 1929.Rose 1967
Rose, Barbara. American Art Since 1900: A Critical History. New York & Washington: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1967, fig. 5–42, ill. in b/w, p. 149, as The Artist and His Mother.Mellow 1968
Mellow, James R. "The Most Elegant Stylist." Review of Arshile Gorky, by Julien Levy. New York Times Book Review, March 31, 1968, ill. in b/w, p. 7, as "The Artist and his Mother".Alexandrian 1970
Alexandrian, Sarane. Surrealist Art. New York and Washington, D.C.: Praeger Publishers, 1970, discussed, p. 175, as The Artist and His Mother.Fuller 1970
Fuller, John. "An Un-Victorian Photograph of the 1860's." Art Journal (New York) 29 (Spring 1970), fig. 5, ill. in b/w, p. 308, as The Artist and His Mother.Sandler 1970
Sandler, Irving H. The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970, fig. 3–7, ill. in b/w, p. 50, as The Artist and His Mother.Wasserman 1970
Wasserman, Emily. The American Scene—Early Twentieth Century Art. Rev. ed. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori and New York: McCall Publishing Company, 1970, pl. 48, ill. in color, p. 66, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosenberg 1972a
Rosenberg, Harold. The De-definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks. New York: Horizon Press, 1972, discussed, p. 186, as The Artist and His Mother.Hunter 1973
Hunter, Sam. American Art of the Twentieth Century. With sections on architecture by John Jacobus. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972, 1973, pl. 340, ill. in color, p. 191, as The Artist and His Mother.Alloway 1974
Alloway, Lawrence. "Art." The Nation (New York) (September 7, 1974), discussed, p. 190, as The Artist and His Mother.Larson 1974
Larson, Philip. "De Kooning's Drawings." In De Kooning: drawings/sculptures, by Philip Larson and Peter Schjeldahl. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 6, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Herrera 1975b
Herrera, Hayden. "The Artist's Self Image: Self Portraits by Arshile Gorky." In Arshile Gorky: Drawings to Paintings. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, 1975. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 8, ill. in b/w, p. 51, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–29.Donohoe 1976
Donohoe, Victoria. "An OK for Modern." Philaldephia Inquirer, September 26, 1976, ill. in b/w, p. H9, as The Artist and His Mother.Jordan 1976
Jordan, Jim. M. "Arshile Gorky at Crooked Run Farm." Arts Magazine (New York) 50, no. 7 (March 1976), discussed, p. 103 fn23, as The Artist and His Mother.Kagitani 1976
Kagitani, Y. "Arshile Gorky: A Man Who Lived in the Middle of Solitude." Mizue (Tokyo) 9, no. 858 (September 1976), ill. in color, p. 25.Krebs 1976
Krebs, Betty Dietz. "'The Golden Door': A Century Relived." Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), September 19, 1976, ill. in b/w, p. 18, as "Arshile Gorky and his mother".Quaytman 1976
Quaytman, Harvey. "Arshile Gorky's Early Paintings." Arts Magazine (New York) 50, no. 7 (March 1976), discussed, p. 105, as "Artist and his Mother".Herrera 1976a
Herrera, Hayden. "Gorky's Self Portraits: The Artist by Himself." Art in America (New York) 64 (March–April 1976), fig. 11, ill. in color, p. 62, as The Artist and His Mother.Lader 1978
Lader, Melvin P. "Graham, Gorky, de Kooning, and the 'Ingres Revival' in America." Arts Magazine (New York) 52 (March 1978), fig. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 94, as The Artist and His Mother.Rathbone 1978
Rathbone, Eliza E. "Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song." In American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1978. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 62, as The Artist and His Mother.Brown 1979
Brown, Milton W., Sam Hunter, et al. American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Photography. Theresa C. Brakeley. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979, pl. 73, ill. in color, p. 481, as The Artist and His Mother.Howe and Libo 1979
Howe, Irving, and Kenneth Libo, eds. How We Lived: A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America. New York: Richard Marek Publishers, Inc., 1979, ill. in b/w, p. 47, as The Artist and His Mother.Kramer 1979a
Kramer, Hilton. "A Rare Gorky and Prints of Prendergast." New York Times, April 13, 1979, discussed, p. C1, as The Artist and His Mother.Bulletin of the Whitney Museum of American Art 1980c
"Exhibitions." Bulletin of the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) 2 (Fall 1980), discussed, p. 14, as The Artist and His Mother.Brach 1981
Brach, Paul. "Gorky's Secret Garden." Art in America (New York) 69, no. 8 (October 1981), ill. in b/w, p. 123, as The Artist and His Mother.Cullinan 1981
Cullinan, Helen. "The First and Last of Arshile Gorky." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), July 5, 1981, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Frank 1981
Frank, Elizabeth. "How Arshile Gorky Finally Became Himself." Artnews (New York) 80 (September 1981), ill. in color, p. 168, as The Artist and His Mother.Giachetti 1981
Giachetti, Romano. Il segreto di Achille. La Repubblica (Rome), May 30, 1981, ill. in b/w, p. 18, as "L'artista e sua madre".Hughes 1981
Hughes, Robert. "Art: The Triumph of Achilles the Bitter." Time (New York) 117, no. 19 (May 11, 1981), ill. in color, p. 80, as The Artist and His Mother.Levin, G. 1981
Levin, Gail. "ART." The Village Voice (New York), May 6–12, 1981, discussed, as The Artist and His Mother.Mills 1981
Mills, James. "New York, London Treasure-Troves of Art." The Sunday Denver Post, May 31, 1981, ill. in b/w, p. 51, as The Artist and His Mother.Monte 1981
Monte, James. "The Life and Work of Arshile Gorky." Museum Magazine (Arlington, VA) 2 (June–August 1981), ill. in color, p. 45, as The Artist and His Mother.Morgan 1981
Morgan, S. "Becoming Arshile Gorky." Artscribe (London), no. 31 (October 1981), ill. in b/w, p. 18, as The Artist and His Mother.Rand 1981
Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun & Co. Publishers Inc., and London: George Prior Associated Publishers Ltd., 1981. Monograph, fig. 2–15, ill. in b/w, p. 28, as The Artist and His Mother.Spender 1981
Spender, Matthew. "The Originality of Gorky." Art/World (New York) (May 23 / June 20, 1981), discussed, p. 6, as "Artist and His Mother".Waldman 1981
Waldman, Diane. "Arshile Gorky: Poet in Paint." In Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1981. Exhibition catalogue, discussed, pp. 14, 33–36, as The Artist and His Mother.Russell 1981a
Russell, John. "Synthesis of Cezanne and Lake Van." St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 3, 1981, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Stevens 1981b
Stevens, Mark. "Arshile Gorky: El gran artista tardío." El Caribe (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) (June 13, 1981), ill. in b/w, p. 18, as "Autorretrato con su madre".Karp 1982
Karp, Diane. "Arshile Gorky: The Language of Art." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1982, fig. 23, ill. in b/w, p. 191, as The Artist and His Mother.Millard 1982
Millard, Charles W. "Arshile Gorky." The Hudson Review (New York) 35, no. 1 (Spring 1982), discussed, p. 108, as The Artist and His Mother.Jordan 1982a
Jordan, Jim M. "The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: New Discoveries, New Sources, and Chronology." In The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue, by Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater. New York and London: New York University Press, 1982, fig. 9, ill. in b/w, p. 50; discussed, pp. 49, 51, 53–57, 88, as The Artist and His Mother.Jordan 1982b
Jordan, Jim M. "Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings." In The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue, by Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater. New York and London: New York University Press, 1982, no. 115, ill. in b/w, pp. 242–43, 245, as The Artist and His Mother.Mooradian 1983
Mooradian, Karlen. "The Wars of Arshile Gorky." Ararat (New York) 24 (Autumn 1983), discussed, pp. 5, 11, as The Artist and His Mother.Seitz 1983
Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art, 1983, fig. 48, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Lader 1984
Lader, Melvin P. "Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother: Further Study of Its Evolution, Sources, and Meaning." Arts Magazine (New York) 58 (January 1984), fig. 1, ill. in b/w, p. 96, as The Artist and His Mother.Lader 1985
Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. Monograph, fig. 26, ill. in color, p. 32, as The Artist and His Mother, dated c. 1926–34.Russell 1985
Russell, John. "Modern Art Museums: The Surprise is Gone." New York Times, August 4, 1985, ill. in b/w, sec. 2, p. 1, as The Artist and His Mother.Rand 1986
Rand, Harry. "Gorky In Virginia." Arts in Virginia 26, no. 1 (1986), fig. 5, ill. in b/w, p. 5, as The Artist and His Mother.Tashjian 1986
Tashjian, Dickran. "Arshile Gorky's American Script: Ethnicity and Modernism in the Diaspora." Bucknell Review: Perspective: Art, Literature, Participation (Lewisburg, PA) 30, no. 1 (1986), ill. in b/w, p. 149, as The Artist and His Mother.Christian Science Monitor 1987
"The Artist and His Mother." Christian Science Monitor, December 1, 1987, ill. in b/w, p. 30, as The Artist and His Mother.Kuspit 1987a
Kuspit, Donald. "Representing The Mother: Representing the Unrepresentable?" In The Artist's Mother: Portraits and Homages, Robert Evren, ed. Huntington, NY: The Heckscher Museum, 1987. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 10, ill. in b/w, p. 27, as The Artist and His Mother.Kuspit 1987b
Kuspit, Donald. "Arshile Gorky: Images in Support of the Invented Self." In Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 51, as The Artist and His Mother.Waldman 1988
Waldman, Diane. Willem de Kooning. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988, fig. 20, ill. in b/w, p. 32, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–29.Cardinal 1990
Cardinal, Roger. "Resurrecting the homeland." The Times Literary Supplement (London), February 9–15, 1990, illl. in b/w, p. 147, as "The Artist and his Mother".Corrin 1990
Corrin, Lisa. "Toward Armenia: Notes of a Journey." In Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 6, ill. in b/w, p. 166, as The Artist and His Mother.Frankel 1990
Frankel, Claire. "Gorky: Tragic Lyricism." International Herald Tribune (Paris), March 10–11, 1990, discussed, p. 7, as The Artist and His Mother.Golding 1990
Golding, John. "Arshile Gorky: The Search for Self." In Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 15, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–c. 1936.Anfam 1990a
Anfam, David. Abstract Expressionism. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1990, fig. 44, ill. in color, p. 61, as "The Artist and his Mother".Rand 1991
Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Rev. ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Monograph, fig. 2–15, ill. in b/w, p. 31, as The Artist and His Mother.Ben-Levi 1993
Ben-Levy, Jack. "A Sadomasochistic Drama in an Age of Traditional Family Values." In Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art 3, ISP Papers. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1993. Exhibition catalogue, ill. in b/w, p. 16, as The Artist and His Mother.Ash 1995
Ash, John. "Arshile Gorky: How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life, 1944." Artforum (New York) 34 (September 1995), discussed, p. 79, as The Artist and His Mother.Spender 1995
Spender, Matthew. "Arshile Gorky's Early Life." In Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years, Karen Lee Spaulding, ed. Fort Worth, Texas: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in association with Rizzoli, New York, 1995. Exhibition catalogue, ill. in b/w, p.36, as The Artist and His Mother.Akiskal and Akiskal 1996
Akiskal, Kareen K., and Hagop S. Akiskal. "Abstract Expressionism as Psychobiography: The Life and Suicide of Arshile Gorky." In Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró, Schildkraut, Joseph J. and Aurora Otero, eds. Chichester (U.K.) and New York: John Wiley, 1996, fig. 19–4, ill. in b/w, p. 227, as The Artist and His Mother.Balakian 1996
Balakian, Peter. "Arshile Gorky and the Armenian Genocide." Art in America (New York) 84 (February 1996), ill. in color, p. 58, as The Artist and His Mother.Spender 1999
Spender, Matthew. From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1999, ill. in b/w, p. 183, as The Artist and His Mother.Venn and Weinberg 1999
Venn, Beth and Adam D. Weinberg. Frames of Reference: Looking at American Art, 1900–1950: Works from the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York and Berkeley: Whitney Museum of American Art and University of California Press, 1999, ill. in color, p. 76, as The Artist and His Mother.Cotter 2002
Cotter, Holland. "Suspended Between Modernism and an Armenian Past." New York Times, April 12, 2002, ill. in b/w, p. E35, as The Artist and His Mother.Kunitz 2002
Kunitz, Daniel. "Gallery Chronicle." The New Criterion (New York) 20 (May 2002), discussed, pp. 49–50, as The Artist and His Mother.Herrera 2003
Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 4, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Adams 2004
Adams, Laurie Schneider. A History of Western Art. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004, fig. 29.3, ill. in color, p. 518, as The Artist and His Mother.Rosand 2004
Rosand, David. The Invention of Painting in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, fig. 70, ill. in b/w, p. 140, as The Artist and His Mother.Landau 2005
Landau, Ellen G., ed. Reading Abstract Expressionism: Context and Critique. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005, fig. 17, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Landi 2006
Landi, Ann. "The Picasso Challenge." Artnews (New York) 105, no. 9 (October 2006), ill. in color, p. 153, as The Artist and His Mother.FitzGerald 2006a
FitzGerald, Michael. "Picasso and American Art: Chapter Three (1930–1939)." In Picasso and American Art. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006. Exhibition catalogue, discussed, pp. 114–15, 143, 162, 164, as The Artist and His Mother.Beredjiklian 2007
Beredjiklian, Alexandre. Arshile Gorky: sept thèmes majeurs. Suresnes, France: Alphamédian & Johanet; Lisbon: Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 2007. Monograph, discussed, pp. 19, 73, 74, as "l'Artiste et sa mère," dated 1926 ?–1936 ?Landau 2007
Landau, Ellen G. "Mexico and American Modernism: The Case of Jackson Pollock." In Abstract Expressionism: The International Context, Joan Marter, ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007, no. 47, ill. in b/w, p. 175, as The Artist and His Mother.Vasconcelos e Melo 2007
Vasoncelos e Malo, Ana. "Arshile Gorky ou l'impératif de la peinture / Arshile Gorky or the Imperative of Painting." In Arshile Gorky: Hommage, translated by João Henriques. Paris: Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2007. Exhibition catalogue, ill. in color, p. 28, as The Artist and His Mother, dated 1926–36.Avakian 2008
Avakian, Florence. "As Arshile Gorky's Prestige Grows, His Armenian Experience Must Not Be Forgotten." The Armenian Reporter (New York), July 5 2008, ill. in b/w, as The Artist and His Mother.Budick 2009
Budick, Ariella. "Arshile Gorky, Philadelphia Museum of Art." The Financial Times (London), November 2, 2009 (accessed online), ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Cooksey 2009
Cooksey, Chelsea L. "Arshile Gorky: The Abstraction of Symbol, Figure, and Form." M.A. Thesis, Purchase College, State University of New York, 2009, fig. 47, ill. in color, p. 78; fig. 54, ill. in color (detail), p. 81, as The Artist and His Mother.Cotter 2009
Cotter, Holland. "From Mimic to Master of Invention." New York Times, October 23, 2009, ill. in color, p. C27, as "Artist and His Mother".Kolbe 2009
Kolbe, Regina. "Dreams Form The Bristles Of The Artist's Brush: Arshile Gorky, The Last Great Surrealist." Antiques and The Arts Weekly (Newton, CT) (October 23, 2009), ill. in color, p. 69, as The Artist and His Mother.Mattison 2009
Matttison, Robert S. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafica, 2009. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 23, as The Artist and His Mother.Sozanski 2009
Sozanski, Edward. "Art: Arshile Gorky: Art and Anguish." Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25 2009, ill. in color (online only), as The Artist and His Mother.Thurman 2009
Thurman, Judith. The Artist's Mother: The Greatest Painters Pay Tribute to the Women Who Rocked Their Cradles. New York and London: Overlook Duckworth and Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2009, ill. in color, p. 105, as The Artist and His Mother.Voves 2009
Voves, Ed. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." California Literary Review (Carlsbad, CA) (November 9 2009), ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Wallis 2009
Wallis, Jonathan. "Perspective: Arshile Gorky Retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." Critical Mass (blog for City Paper, Philadelphia), November 16, 2009, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Warner 2009
Warner, Emily. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective." The Brooklyn Rail (NY) (December 2009–January 2010), ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Theriault 2009a
Theriault, Kim S. Rethinking Arshile Gorky. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009. Monograph, pl. 1, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Theriault 2009b
Theriault, Kim S. "Exile, Trauma, and Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother." In Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, Kathleen Krattenmaker, ed. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 27, ill. in color (detail), p. 50; fig. 28, ill. in color (detail), p. 51, as The Artist and His Mother.Alberro 2010
Alberro, Alexander. "The Apprenticeship of Arshile Gorky: On Arshile Gorky at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." Texte zur Kunst (Cologne) 77 (March 2010), ill. in color, p. 206; ill. in b/w (detail), p. 145, as The Artist and His Mother.Bankes 2010
Bankes, Ariane. "If He Couldn't Paint, He Couldn't Live." The Spectator (London), February 6, 2010, ill. in color, p. 41, as The Artist and His Mother.Campbell-Johnston 2010
Campbell-Johnston, Rachel. "An Old World newly minted." The Times (London), February 9, 2010, ill. in color, p. 14, as The Artist and His Mother.Gale 2010
Gale, Matthew. Arshile Gorky: Enigma and Nostalgia. London: Tate Publishing, 2010. Exhibition catalogue (2009–10 Philadelphia), no. 5, ill. in color, p. 22; ill. in color (detail), p. 14, as The Artist and His Mother.Georgievska-Shine 2010
Georgievska-Shine, Aneta. "Arshile Gorky: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles." ArtUS (Los Angeles), no. 29 (2010), ill. in color, p. 25, as The Artist and His Mother.Harvey 2010
Harvey, Doug. "Gorky's Debt: The Genealogy of an Action Pioneer." Los Angeles Weekly, July 8, 2010, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Jury 2010
Jury, Louise. "Remembering a Mother at Tate." Evening Standard (London), February 9, 2010, ill. in color, p. 27, as The Artist and His Mother.Murachanian 2010
Murachanian, Jean. "The Forging of an Artistic Identity: A Gorky Retrospective." Asbarez Newspaper (Los Angeles), July 2, 2010, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Sewell 2010
Sewell, Brian. "Mother's Boy." Evening Standard (London), February 11, 2010, ill. in color, pp. 38–39, as The Artist and His Mother.Spender 2010
Spender, Matthew. Una storia armena Vita di Arshile Gorky. Florence: Barbès Editore, 2010, ill. in b/w, p. 205; p. 427, as "The Artist and his Mother".Weston 2010
Weston, Neville. "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective." Craft Arts International (Neutral Bay Junction, N.S.W.) 79 (2010), ill. in color, p. 85, as The Artist and His Mother.Agee 2012
Agee, William C. "Graham, Gorky, de Kooning: A New Classicism, an Alternate Modernism." In American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927–1942. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 41, ill. in color, p. 138, as The Artist and His Mother.Robbins 2012
Robbins, Christa Noel. "Harold Rosenberg on the Character of Action." Oxford Art Journal (U.K.) 35, no. 2 (2012), fig. 4, ill. in color, p. 210; discussed, pp. 209–10, as The Artist and His Mother.Landau 2013
Landau, Ellen G. Mexico and American Modernism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013, fig. 53, ill. in b/w, p. 78, as The Artist and His Mother.Pitman 2013
Pitman, Alexandra. "Trauma, bereavement and the creative process: Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother." Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (London) 19 (2013), fig. 2, ill. in b/w, p. 367, as The Artist and His Mother.Sandler 2013
Sandler, Irving H. "Arshile Gorky, 'An Artist of the Earth.'" The Brooklyn Rail (NY) (July–August 2013), ill. in color, p. 33, as The Artist and His Mother.Kerr 2014
Kerr, Melissa. Arshile Gorky: Drawings from the Thirties. Brussels: Patrick Derom Gallery, 2014. Monograph, ill. in b/w, p. 54, as The Artist and His Mother.Voves 2014
Voves, Ed. "Mother of Inspiration: Icons of the Virgin Mary and the Rise of Western Art." Art Eyewitness (blog) (July 8, 2014), ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Miller 2015
Miller, Dana, ed. Whitney Museum of American Art: Handbook of the Collection. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015, ill. in color, p. 151, as The Artist and His Mother.Anfam 2016
Anfam, David. "An Unending Equation." In Abstract Expressionism. London: Royal Academy Publications, 2016. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 8, ill. in color, p. 27, as The Artist and His Mother.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. 23, as The Artist and His Mother.Spender 2018a
Spender, Matthew, ed. Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song: A Life in Letters and Documents. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018, ill. in color, p. 98, as The Artist and His Mother.Devaney 2019
Devaney, Edith. "Gorky's Point of View / Il Punto di Vista di Gorky." In Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2019. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 3, ill. in color, p. 33, as "The Artist and His Mother / L'artista e sua madre".Falconer 2022
Falconer, Morgan. "Toil and Trouble: A Show Looking for 'Doubles' in Modern Art Ends up a Little out of Focus." Apollo (London) 196, no. 712 (October 2022), fig. 2, ill. in color, p. 95, as "The Artist and his Mother".Kaye 2022
Kaye, Richard A. "The Double: Identity and Difference in Art Since 1900." Art Monthly (London), no. 461 (November 2022), discussed, p. 25, as The Artist and His Mother.Low 2022
Low, David. Picturing the Ottoman Armenian World: Photography in Erzurum, Harput, Van and Beyond. London, New York, and Dublin: I.B. Tauris, 2022, discussed, pp. 36, 182–85.Meyer 2022
Meyer, James. "The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900." In The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900. Washington, D.C, Princeton, and Oxford: National Gallery of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2022. Exhibition catalogue, discussed, pp. 23–24, as The Artist and His Mother.Saenger 2022
Saenger, Peter. "The Power of Seeing Double." Wall Street Journal (New York), July 2–3, 2022, ill. in color, p. C14, as The Artist and His Mother.Strand 2022
Strand, John. "Arshile Gorky: Double Life, Double Portrait." National Gallery of Art Blog (Washington, D.C.), September 29, 2022, ill. in color, as The Artist and His Mother.Fer 2023
Fer, Briony. "The limits of painting: The space between abstraction and figuration in the work of Louise Bourgeois and Arshile Gorky." In Louise Bourgeois. Imaginary Conversations / Louise Bourgeois. Imaginaere samtaler. Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2023. Exhibition catalogue (2023 Oslo), no. 110, ill. in color, p. 144; pp. 146, 238, as The Artist and His Mother.Low 2023
Low, David. "Uncovering the Photographer Behind Arshile Gorky’s Most Famous Painting." Hyperallergic (Brooklyn, NY), March 30, 2023, ill. in color (in situ), as The Artist and His Mother.Notes
The canvas was relined. The reverse is covered by a backing board.
Commentary
The painting is after a black-and-white photograph of Gorky and his mother Shushan der Marderosian Adoian (1880–1919) taken c. 1912 (see supplementary image). The photograph was intended as a memento for the artist's father Setrag Adoian (c. 1871–1948), who had immigrated to the United States in 1906 and to whom it was sent. In March 1919, its significance deepened with Shushan's death. A casualty of the Armenian Genocide, she died aged only thirty-nine, with Gorky and his younger sister Vartoosh (1906–1991) bearing witness. Gorky rediscovered the photograph among his father's possessions, either in the early 1920s, when Setrag was living in Providence, Rhode Island, with Gorky’s half-brother Hagop (1888–1962), or, as Matthew Spender has suggested, c. 1927, when Setrag was living in Cranston, Rhode Island.1
A second version of the painting, believed to have been reworked by Gorky until approximately 1942, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (P114).
Saul Schary (1904–1978), Gorky’s close friend and a fellow painter, witnessed the artist reworking the painting between the late 1920s and mid-to-late 1930s. In a 1965 interview, when remarking on the smoothness of its surface, Schary recalled Gorky’s process: “There’s hardly a bump of paint that sticks up [on the surface]. It’s all very fine and done with very soft sable or camel brushes. . . . Gorky decided that the way to get that smooth quality was to scrape the surface. So he’d paint and then let it dry good and hard. Then he’d take it into the bathroom and he’d scrape over the surface very carefully with a razor. Scrape the paint down until it got as smooth as though it were painted on ivory. You look at that picture the next time and you won’t be able to tell how he did it, because there are no brush strokes. Because he scraped it and he scraped it and he scraped it, and then held it over the bathtub and wiped off with a damp rag, all the excess dust and paint. Then he’d go back and paint over it again and then scrape it. And that’s how he got that wonderful surface.”2
Gorky's friends Helen (1906–2000) and Alexander "Sandy" Sandow (1901–1978), who the artist had known since 1930, recalled a visit to Gorky's studio around 1933 during which they viewed the then-unfinished painting. In conversation with Gorky scholar Melvin P. Lader, Helen recalled: "Gorky brought out the painting of his mother and himself. . . . We were literally stunned by its gentle beauty and sensitivity especially coming after the force and boldness not to mention the size of all the abstractions we had been looking at. . . . I think the painting was on an easel which he kept covered with a cloth. He said he was working on it—that it was not finished—although it looked quite finished to me."3 Another of Gorky's friends, the artist Jacob Kainen (1909–2001), recalled a visit to Gorky's studio in 1934 at which point the painting was hanging on the wall, purportedly finished: ". . . Gorky opened the door. The first memory I have is of the now famous self-portrait of the artist and his mother, unframed, facing me on the distant wall."4 According to Kainen, "It dominated the studio with its monumental and delicate presence—the only painting on the walls."5 Kainen's recollection is corroborated by Isobel Grossman (1904–1995), one of Gorky's patrons, who, during a visit to the studio in the mid-1930s, also remembered seeing the painting hanging alone, in contrast to the many other canvases on the floor, stacked against a wall.6
In addition to frequently reworking his canvases over a span of time, Gorky often backdated them. Here, the date "26–9," inscribed lower right, likely refers to a combination of both scenarios. Stylistically, the painting is closest to a number of portraits Gorky completed c. 1934.7 The recollections of Gorky's contemporaries who saw the painting in the mid-1930s also confirm this date. Although Gorky began the painting as early as 1926, the inscribed date does not refer to the painting's date of completion. It was definitely finished by 1937, according to American writer Edwin Denby (1903–1983), who visited Gorky's studio that year.8 It should be noted that when the painting was first exhibited in 1946 in Fourteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, it was dated 1926–29 (see 1946c New York).
According to his wife Agnes "Mougouch" (1921–2013), in the early 1940s, when he entered a "period before he went back to landscape and he was looking for material within his own studio, from his own painting," he reworked a number of portraits originating from the 1930s, including the National Gallery’s version of The Artist and His Mother (P114).9 There were some paintings from the 1930s that Gorky did not later rework, including this version of The Artist and His Mother (P115).
In November 1949, after Mougouch disputed a claim made by Gorky's last lifetime dealer, Julien Levy (1906–1981), averring that Gorky had given him the painting in 1945 as part of his formal contract with the Julien Levy Gallery (signed in December 1944), an agreement was reached with the Estate of Arshile Gorky. According to its terms Levy agreed to gift the painting to the Whitney Museum of American Art on behalf of Gorky’s daughters, Maro (b. 1943) and Natasha (b. 1945), whom Mougouch believed to be the rightful owners.10
1. See: Matthew Spender, From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 29; Hayden Herrera, Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 152; Kim S. Theriault, “Exile, Trauma, and Arshile Gorky’s The Artist and His Mother,” in Kathleen Krattenmaker (ed.), Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009), 44; Nouritza Matossian, Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky (Woodstock and New York: The Overlook Press, 2000), 155; Ethel Schwabacher, Arshile Gorky (New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art), 33.
2. Saul Schary, interview by Karlen Mooradian, Arshile Gorky/Mooradian Archive, Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, New York; Saul Schary, "Conversations on Gorky," interview by Karlen Mooradian, October 5, 1965, in Karlen Mooradian, The Many Worlds of Arshile Gorky (Chicago: Gilgamesh, 1980), 205–206. Partially reprinted in: Spender, ed., Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song: A Life in Letters and Documents, trans. Father Krikor Maksoudian (Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018), 97.
3. Melvin P. Lader, "Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother: Further Study of Its Evolution, Sources, and Meaning," ARTS Magazine 58 (January 1984): 99.
4. Jacob Kainen, "Memories of Arshile Gorky," ARTS Magazine 50, no. 7 (March 1976): 96. In a July 1983 letter to Melvin P. Lader, Ruth Cole Kainen, Jacob's wife, confirmed that Kainen's memory refers to P115; see Lader, "Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother," 104, fn. 24.
5. Jacob Kainen, "Posing for Gorky," The Washington Post, June 10, 1979, L1, 4.
6. Lader, "Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother," 99.
7. Jim M. Jordan, "The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: New Discoveries, New Sources, and Chronology," in Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater, The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue (New York and London: New York University Press, 1982), 49. For stylistic affinities, see P110, P111, and P113.
8. Edwin Denby, interview by Karlen Mooradian, Arshile Gorky/Mooradian Archive, Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, New York; Edwin Denby, "Conversations on Gorky," interview by Karlen Mooradian, May 2, 1966, in Many Worlds, 216.
9. Agnes Gorky Fielding, as quoted in Jordan, "Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings," in Jordan and Goldwater, The Paintings of Arshile Gorky, 242, 345.
10. Agnes Gorky argued that the painting could not have been part of Gorky's December 1944 contract with Levy given its completion nearly a decade earlier (c. 1936). In the related correspondence, she notes: "[the painting was] only loaned to Levy + I refuse to accept [Levy's] claim that Gorky gave it to him as a come on for the contract—[P115] is the property of Maro and Natasha Gorky—it is not listed in the contract itself + the contract only has right to paintings of the year of the contract and 'recent work.' [The curator] Dorothy [C.] Miller will be able to tell you that [P115] was not recent work in 1945." Letter from Agnes Gorky to Joshua Binion Cahn, June 1949, AGF Archives. Letter from Joshua Binion Cahn to Agnes Gorky, November 18, 1949, AGF Archives.
Gorky and his mother, Shushan Der Marderosian Adoian, Van, c. 1912. Unknown photographer (likely Hovhannes Avedaghayan). Courtesy of Dr. Bruce Berberian.
Portraits (sitter identified): Shushan der Marderosian (artist's mother)
Related Work
Themes: Portraits and heads; Self-portrait
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