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Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: © Yale University Art Gallery

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D0175a
Abstraction
c. 1931–34
Ink on paper
22 11/16 x 28 7/8 in. (57.6 x 73.3 cm)
Not inscribed
Yale University Art Gallery.
Gift of Collection Société Anonyme (1941.487)
Provenance
The artist
[Guild Art Gallery, New York (by December 1935)]
Katherine S. Dreier, New York (January 5, 1936)
Société Anonyme Inc., New York, by transfer (1936)
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, by gift (January 1, 1941)
Exhibitions
1935–36a New York
Guild Art Gallery, New York, Abstract Drawings by Arshile Gorky, December 16, 1935–January 5, 1936, as Abstraction.
1939 Springfield
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts, Some New Forms of Beauty, 1909–1936. A Selection of the Collection of the Société Anonyme — Museum of Modern Art: 1920, November 9–December 17, 1939, no. 17, p. 9, as "Forms in Pen and Ink".
1940 Hartford
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, Some New Forms of Beauty, 1909–1936. A Selection of the Collection of the Société Anonyme — Museum of Modern Art: 1920, January 4–February 4, 1940, no. 17, as "Forms in Pen and Ink".
1942 Middletown
Davison Art Rooms of Olin Library, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, Oil Paintings, Watercolors and Prints lent by the Yale University Art Gallery from the Collection of the Société Anonyme–Museum of Modern Art, February 28–March 31, 1942.
1969 College Park
J. Millard Tawes Fine Arts Center, University of Maryland Art Department and Art Gallery, College Park, The Drawings of Arshile Gorky, March 20–April 27, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: Joyner 1969), no. 3 (Drawings, Sketches, Gouaches), p. 53; fig. 19, ill. in color, p. 36, as "Forms".
1969e New York
M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky: Drawings, November 25–December 27, 1969. (Exhibition catalogue: Jordan 1969), no. 15, ill. in b/w, p. 22; p. 55, as "Forms".
1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 40, ill. in b/w, p. 94, as "Forms". Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
1983 New Haven
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, [Bob Herbert's Teaching Exhibition], January–May 1983.
1989–90 Madrid
Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, October 17–December 23, 1989, no. 52, ill. in color, p. 134, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia," dated 1931–32. Traveled to: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, January 19–March 25, 1990.
2003–04b New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings, November 20, 2003–February 15, 2004, no. 42, ill. in color, p. 97; p. 243, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia," dated 1931–32. Traveled to: Menil Collection, Houston, March 5–May 9, 2004.
2006–13 Yale
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (organizer), The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, 2006–13, ill. in color, p. 174, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia". Traveled to: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, April 23–August 20, 2006; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., October 14, 2006–January 21, 2007; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, June 10–September 16, 2007; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, October 26, 2007–February 3, 2008; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, December 4, 2012–June 23, 2013.
2017 New Haven
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Artists in Exile: Expressions of Loss and Hope, September 1–December 31, 2017, no. 14, p. 245; fig. 1, ill. in color, p. 118, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia".
Literature
Hamilton 1950
Hamilton, George Heard. "Arshile Gorky." In Collection of the Société Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art 1920. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1950, ill. in b/w, p. 34, as "Forms".
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 p. 28, as "Forms".
Karp 1982
Karp, Diane. "Arshile Gorky: The Language of Art." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1982, fig. 49, ill. in b/w, p. 217, as "Forms".
Herbert et al 1984
Herbert, Robert L., Eleanor S. Apter, and Elise K. Kenney, eds. The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984, no. 308, ill. in b/w, p. 307, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia".
Lader et al 1994
Lader, Melvin P., Joseph P. Ruzicka, Martin Kline, and Sarah E. Lawrence. "Catalogue [of Plates]." In Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction: Drawings from the Early 1930s. New York: Stephen Mazoh & Co., Inc., Distributed by the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1994. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 21, ill. in b/w, p. 64, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia".
Kerr 2009
Kerr, Melissa. "Chronology." In Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, edited by Michael Taylor. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 140, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia," in Guild Art Gallery, New York, December 1935.
Mattison 2009
Matttison, Robert S. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafica, 2009. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 37, as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia".
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. 83, as "Untitled".
Notes
Watermark / Stamp: Strathmore
Strathmore paper with blindstamp, upper left: STRATHMORE / [thistle] / USE EITHER SIDE

Commentary

The drawing was exhibited four times during Gorky's lifetime, as Abstraction and Forms in Pen and Ink. It is catalogued here in accordance with the earlier title.

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 that 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 the posthumously titled "Fish and Head," "Column with Objects" and "Écorché." Gorky titled two of these himself: Objects and Enigma. The latter's source, a painting (P120), is related to six known drawings, including this work.1

The drawing's first owner was Katherine S. Dreier (1877–1952), who paid $85 for it from the artist's first solo exhibition in New York, held at the Guild Art Gallery in the winter of 1935–36.1 Hers was the only purchase from the exhibition.

Dreier acquired the work for the collection of the Société Anonyme Inc. (Museum of Modern Art), which she founded with Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) in 1920. The pioneering organization was strictly not-for-profit with the goal of building a contemporary art collection and organizing exhibitions that were held both in their rented rooms on East 47th Street and at various other venues. For example, the Société Anonyme organized a show for the recently completed building of the New School for Social Research that opened on January 1, 1931. Among the artworks on view was one by Gorky titled Improvisation, a piece that has not been positively identified.

The collection of the Société Anonyme was presented by Dreier to Yale University Art Gallery in 1941.

1. See also: D0173, D0174a, D0176, D0177, and D1638.

2. The drawing was titled Abstraction. Guild Art Gallery, New York, Abstract Drawings by Arshile Gorky, December 16, 1935–January 5, 1936. Exhibition checklist with text by Holger Cahill.

Abstraction, c. 1931–34, D0175a. Gorky in December 1935, lecturing at the Guild Art Gallery during his exhibition, Abstract Drawings by Arshile Gorky, December 16, 1935–January 5, 1936. D0175a is visible behind Gorky's right shoulder.
Gorky in December 1935, lecturing at the Guild Art Gallery during his exhibition, Abstract Drawings by Arshile Gorky, December 16, 1935–January 5, 1936. D0175a is visible behind Gorky's right shoulder.
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