Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: David Heald
P285
(Untitled)
1944
Oil on canvas
65 3/4 x 70 3/16 in. (167 x 178.2 cm)
Front, lower right: A. Gorky / 44
Reverse not inscribed
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York), 76.2553 PG 152
Exhibitions
1948a Venice
XXIV Biennale di Venezia, U.S. Pavillion, Venice, Italy, La Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, May 29–September 30, 1948, no. 52, p. 342 (Venice); no. 56, p. 17 (Milan and Florence). Traveled to: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, February 19–March 10, 1949; Palazzo Reale, Milan, June 1949.
1951 Amsterdam
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Surréalisme & Abstraction: Choix de la Collection Peggy Guggenheim / Surrealisme & Abstractie: Keuze uit de Verzameling Peggy Guggenheim, January 19–February 26, 1951, no. 66 (French/Dutch catalogue); no. 60 (German catalogue), as "Painting". Traveled to: Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Belgium, March 3–28, 1951; Kunsthaus Zurich, April 14–May 15, 1951 (as Moderne Kunst aus der Sammlung Peggy Guggenheim).
1951 Zurich
Kunsthaus Zurich, Moderne Kunst aus der Sammlung Peggy Guggenheim, April–May 1951, no. 60.
1964–65 AC–London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, December 31, 1964–March 7, 1965, no. 127, ill. in b/w, p. 76, as "Painting".
1967–68 Turin
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy, Le Muse Inquietanti: Maestri del Surrealismo, November 1967–January 1968, no. 262, ill. in b/w, p. 192, as "Untitled".
1969a New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Works from the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, January 16–March 23, 1969, ill. in b/w, p. 140, as "Painting".
1978 AC–London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Hayward Gallery, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, January 11–March 27, 1978, no. 15.16, ill. in b/w, p. 392, as "Painting".
1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 182, ill. in color, p. 207, as "Painting". Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.
1982–83 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 60 Works: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, November 18, 1982–March 13, 1983, no. 50, ill. in color, p. 56, as "Painting".
1987 Buffalo
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments, September 19–November 29, 1987, no. 7, ill. in color, p. 173, as "Untitled".
1989–90 Madrid
Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, October 17–December 23, 1989, no. 35, ill. in color, p. 107, as "Painting". Traveled to: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, January 19–March 25, 1990.
2003–05 Venice
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, Peggy and Kiesler: The Collector and the Visionary, October 10, 2003–January 9, 2005. (Exhibition catalogue: Davidson and Rylands 2004), no. 49, ill. in color, p. 143, as "Untitled".
2004–05 Modena
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (organizer), Foro Boario, Modena, Action Painting: arte americana 1940–1970: dal disegno all'opera, November 21, 2004–February 27, 2005, no. 18, ill. in color, p. 107; detail ill. in b/w, p. 68, as "Untitled".
2005 Venice
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, Affinities: Works from the Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection, Berlin, June 4–September 18, 2005, ill. in color, p. 155, as "Untitled".
2007–08 Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (organized in collaboration with the Terra Foundation for American Art), Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation / Art in the USA: 300 años de innovación, 2007–2008, ill. in color, p. 178 (Spanish catalogue), as "Untitled". Traveled to: National Art Museum, Beijing, February 10–April 5, 2007; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, May 1–June 30, 2007; Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, July 24–September 9, 2007; Museo Guggenheim Bilboa, Spain, October 10, 2007–April 27, 2008.
2009–10 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 124, ill. in color, p. 285; p. 390, as "Painting". 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).
2012 Rome
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Il Guggenheim: L'avanguardia Americana: 1945–1980, February 7–May 6, 2012, no. 10, ill. in color, p. 63, as "Untitled".
2022 Venice
Ca'Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy, afro 1950–1970: Dall’Italia all’America e ritorno / From Italy to America and Back, April 21–October 23, 2022, ill. in color, p. 182, as "Senza titolo".
Literature
Calas 1966
Calas, Nicolas, and Elena Calas. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966, ill. in b/w, p. 167, as "Painting".
Guggenheim 1969
Guggenheim, Peggy. "La raccolta Guggenheim a New York." Le Arti (Milan), no. 5 (May 1969), discussed, p. 25.
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. 51, ill. in color, p. 69, as "Painting".
Jordan 1981
Jordan, Jim M. "Gorky at the Guggenheim." Art Journal (New York) 41, no. 3 (Fall 1981), fig. 20, ill. in b/w, p. 264, as "Painting".
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. 57, as "Painting".
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, discussed, pp. 85–86, as "Painting".
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. 285, ill. in b/w, pp. 439–40, as "Painting".
Lader 1985
Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. Monograph, fig. 88, ill. in color, p. 89, as "Painting".
Lader 1992
Lader, Melvin P. "Arshile Gorky: A Modern Artist in the Academic Tradition / Arshile Gorky: Un Artista Moderno Nella Tradizione Accademica." In Arshile Gorky: Works on Paper / Opere su Carta. Rome: Edizioni Carte Segrete, 1992. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 12, ill. in b/w, p. 31, as "Untitled".
Bell et al 1993
Bell, Clare, et al. Art of This Century: The Guggenheim Museum and Its Collection. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 1993, ill. in color, p. 225; discussed, p. 224, as "Untitled".
Spender 1999
Spender, Matthew. From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1999, ill. in b/w, p. 280, as "Untitled".
Messer 2001
Messer, Thomas M. "L'Abstract Expressionism in America / American Abstract Expressionism." In Da Kandinsky a Pollock: la vertigine della non-forma / From Kandinsky to Pollock: the Vertigo of Non-form, Federico Motta, ed. Lugano: Museo Cantanole d'Arte, 2001. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 16, ill. in b/w, p. 33, as "Untitled".
Herrera 2003
Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 163, ill. color, as "Painting".
Mattison 2009
Matttison, Robert S. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafica, 2009. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 82, as "Painting".
Rich 2010
Rich, Sarah K. "Arshile Gorky: Philadelphia Museum of Art." Artforum (New York) 48, no. 6 (February 2010), ill. in color, p. 193, as "Painting".
Spender 2010
Spender, Matthew. Una storia armena Vita di Arshile Gorky. Florence: Barbès Editore, 2010, ill. in b/w, p. 315; p. 428, as "Untitled".
Benesch 2012
Benesch, Evelyn. "Surrealismus und die Folgen: Gorky—Smith—Seligmann: Drei Papierarbeiten der 1930er-Jahre aus der Sammlung Looser / Surrealism and Beyond: Gorky—Smith—Seligmann: Three Works on Paper from the Nineteen-Thirties in the Looser Collection." In Sammlung / Collection Hubert Looser, Ingried Brugger and Florian Steininger, eds. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2012. Exhibition catalogue (2012 Vienna), fig. 9, ill. in color, p. 204, as "Painting".
Benesch 2017
Benesch, Evelyn. "Surrealisme og det som følger: Gorky—Smith—Seligmann: Tre papirarbeider fra 1930-tallet i Looser-samlingen / Surrealism and Beyond: Gorky—Smith—Seligmann: Three Works on Paper from the Nineteen-Thirties in the Looser Collection." In Rastløse Gester. Verk fra Hubert Loosers samling, Sabrina van der Ley, ed. Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2017. Exhibition catalogue (2017–18 Oslo), fig. 7, ill. in color, p. 40, as "Painting".
Spender and Devaney 2017
Spender, Saskia and Edith Devaney. Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943–47. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2017. Exhibition catalogue (2017 New York), ill. in color, p. 33; p. 138, as "Untitled".
Belli 2019
Belli, Gabriella. "Good Afternoon, Mr. Gorky!" In Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2019. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2, ill. in color, p. 48, as "Untitled / Senza titolo".
Notes
The reverse inscription information is known from a photograph provided by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

Commentary

According to Agnes "Mougouch" Gorky (1921–2013), the painting was made during the fall of 1944 in the barn that had been converted into a studio for Gorky's use at Crooked Run Farm, in Lincoln, Virginia—the country home of her parents, the Magruders. The painting's overall composition is prefigured in a drawing dated to the same year (see related work). The painting's style, constituted by the primacy of thin black liner brush lines on a white ground, would be repeated in They Will Take My Island (P288) and would go on to foreshadow much of Gorky's work from 1945. 

Shortly before the Gorky family's departure from Virginia, Mougouch reported: "Gorky works on as though we were not leaving in a few days & yesterday started a huge canvas [P285], almost as big as the one in N.Y. [P281]. He must feel like a bonfire inside to tackle it."1 

After the Gorkys returned to New York in November 1944, at the prompting of the artist David Hare (1917–1992), Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) visited Gorky's 36 Union Square studio, where she encountered the painting which she purchased, without a title, that same month. The sale took place only months before Gorky and André Breton (1896–1966) were to devise a collaborative method for titling works, which would serve as the basis for Gorky's selection of titles thereafter (see commentary for P278). It is possible that Guggenheim's acquisition simply took place before Gorky arrived at a title, however, the scholar Jim M. Jordan has speculated that perhaps "Gorky was still afraid that more personal titles would be misunderstood, or thought excessively romantic."2

Writing to Jeanne Reynal (1903–1983) soon after Guggenheim's acquisition, Mougouch recounted, "Peggy Guggenheim bought one of the latest largest pictures [P285]. She was crazy to have the one in [Sidney] Janis' show [P281] but felt it was too large and everyone who has seen the one she bought thinks it much more advanced and interesting."3 Gorky, however, was reportedly "initially reluctant to leave [the surface of P285] so empty."4 

1. Letter from Mougouch Gorky to Jeanne Reynal, November 1944, in Matthew Spender, ed., Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song: A Life in Letters and Documents (Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2018), 319.

2. Jim M. Jordan, "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), 86.

3. Letter from Mougouch Gorky to Jeanne Reynal, December 1944 (started in N.Y. and finished in C.T.), in Spender, ed., The Plow and the Song, 328.

4. Agnes Gorky Fielding, interview by Matthew Spender, September 30, 1991, transcript, Matthew Spender Papers, AGF Archives.

Related Work
[Drawing, 'Untitled']1944 D1083
1944
Crayon and graphite pencil on lavender-edged paper
D1083
Crayon and graphite pencil on lavender-edged paper