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Photo: Peter Schälchli
P216
Oil Painting
1938
Oil on canvas
29 1/4 x 40 1/8 in. (74.3 x 101.9 cm)
Front, lower right: A GORKY / [paraph]
Reverse not seen
Reverse not seen
Private collection
Provenance
Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, November 27, 1940–January 8, 1941, no. 66, as Oil Painting.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky Memorial Exhibition, January 5–February 18, 1951, no. 23, p. 46, as "Painting". Traveled to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, March 4–April 22, 1951; San Francisco Museum of Art, California, May 9–July 9, 1951.
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 33 Paintings by Arshile Gorky, December 2–28, 1957. (Exhibition catalogue: Sidney Janis Gallery 1957), no. 5, ill. in b/w, as "Grey Painting," dated 1937–39.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, December 19, 1962–February 12, 1963. (Exhibition catalogue: Seitz 1962), no. 38, p. 53, as "Gray Painting," dated c. 1937. Traveled to: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, D.C., March 12–April 14, 1963.
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Tate Gallery, Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, April 2–May 2, 1965, no. 35, as "Grey Painting," dated c. 1937.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 103, ill. in b/w, p. 144, as "Grey Painting," dated 1937. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, October 17–December 23, 1989, no. 24, ill. in color, p. 93, as "Grey Painting". Traveled to: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, January 19–March 25, 1990.
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, 1929–1942, October 27, 1998–January 9, 1999, ill. in color, pp. 42–43; p. 94, as "Gray Painting," dated c. 1938.
Pace Gallery, New York, Mythology, February 22–April 14, 2012, ill. in color, p. 26, as "Grey Painting," dated c. 1937–38.
Literature
Curl, Huldah. "Arshile Gorky: Memorial Exhibition." Notes and Comments from the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) 5 (March 1951), ill. in b/w, p. 2, as "Painting".
de Kooning, Elaine. "Gorky: Painter of his Own Legend." Artnews (New York) 49, no. 9 (January 1951), ill. in b/w, p. 40, as "Painting".
Late Drawings by Gorky. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1959. Exhibition catalogue (1959b New York), no. 38, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "Grey Painting," in "Gallery View, Gorky Exhibition, December 1957".
Paintings by Arshile Gorky from 1929 to 1948. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1962. Exhibition catalogue (1962b New York), no. 31, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "View, Gorky Exhibition, December 1957".
Rosenberg, Harold. Arshile Gorky: The Man, the Time, the Idea. New York: Horizon Press, 1962. Monograph, ill. in b/w, p. 67, as "Painting".
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. 45, as "Grey Painting".
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, discussed p. 73, as "Gray Painting".
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. 216, ill. in b/w, pp. 362–63, as "Gray Painting".
Schuyler, James. "Arshile Gorky." Artnews (New York) 56 (December 1957). In Selected Art Writings: James Schuyler, edited by Simon Pettet. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1998, discussed p. 123.
Notes
Reverse, stretcher bar [by Agnes Gorky Phillips]: 1937
The painting is inscribed at lower right in beige paint with flourishes in maroon paint.
The marking on the stretcher bar is known from the Arshile Gorky Research Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art Archives, New York.
On loan: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 20, 1988–September 28, 1994.
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