Reverse, stretcher bar: [signed and inscribed "NYC"]
Commentary
Although the painting's title, From a High Place, is identified as lifetime in Jim M. Jordan's catalogue raisonné, there is no known extant documentation confirming its origin with the artist and we have therefore designated it as posthumous.1 If original to the artist, the title was likely decided upon by Gorky and André Breton (1896–1966) through a collaborative process of free association that the two artists jointly devised in the months preceding Gorky's debut solo show at the Julien Levy Gallery in March 1945 (see commentary for P287).2
In the ledgers for Julien Levy's gallery, Gorky's last lifetime dealer, a work referred to as "From a Hill Top" was sold to Howard Putzel (1898–1945) of 67 Gallery in New York. It is, however, unconfirmed if this transaction and the associated title refer to this painting.3 The significance of the title From a High Place has often been interpreted as a reference to a landscape. In his biography of Gorky, the title of which originates from this painting, Matthew Spender writes, "the title From a High Place indicates detachment and retreat—a retreat perhaps to the mountains of Armenia, which are so immensely high."4
1. Jim M. Jordan, "Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings," in Jim M. Jordan and Robert Goldwater, The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue (New York and London: New York University Press, 1982), 438–39.
2. Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, March 6–31, 1945.
3. Putzel purchased "From a Hill Top" from Julien Levy Gallery for $75, which is more consistent with Levy's prices for Gorky's drawings than with his prices for the artist's paintings. With that being said, there is no known drawing in the current installment of the catalogue raisonné that has been identified as the work purchased by Putzel. Julien Levy Gallery Records, Ledger, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Library and Archives.
4. Matthew Spender, From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 324.