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Catalogue Entry
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Photo: Jerry L. Thompson
P289
(To Project, To Conjure)
1944
Oil on canvas
35 3/4 x 46 3/4 in. (90.8 x 118.7 cm)
Front, lower left: A. Gorky / 44
Reverse not seen
Reverse not seen
Private collection
Provenance
The artist
Julien Levy Gallery, New York (1945)
Julien Levy, Bridgewater, Connecticut (1949)
Estate of Arshile Gorky, by transfer (March 1950)
Private collection (1975)
[Xavier Fourcade Inc., New York (September 20, 1978)]
David and Susan Workman, New York (November 16, 1978)
[Washburn Gallery, New York (October 1981)]
[Xavier Fourcade Inc., New York (February 1, 1982)]
Warner Communications, New York (April 8, 1982)
[Blum Helman Gallery, New York (by 1984)]
Stephen and Nan Swid, New York (July 19, 1984)
David Tunkl Fine Art, Los Angeles (2003)
[Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York (2004)]
Private collection (May 4, 2004)
Exhibitions
1965 AC–Brussels and Rotterdam
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Arshile Gorky, Paintings and Drawings / Arshile Gorky: Schilderijen en Tekeningen, 1965, no. 71, as "Plannen en gissingen maken / To project, to conjure". Traveled to: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, May 22–June 27, 1965; Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, July 24–September 5, 1965 (Museum Boymans van Beuingen 1965).1965 AC–London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Tate Gallery, Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, April 2–May 2, 1965, no. 58, as "To Protect, To Conjure".1975–77 AC–London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, 1975–77, no. 11, as "To Protect, To Conjure". Traveled to: Southampton Art Gallery, United Kingdom, December 12, 1975–February 22, 1976; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, United Kingdom, April 3–May 2, 1976; Sunderland Art Gallery, United Kingdom, June 5–August 15, 1976; City Art Gallery, Dundee, United Kingdom, August 21–November 27, 1976; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, United Kingdom, December 19, 1976–January 16, 1977; Serpentine Gallery, London, March 12–April 11, 1977.1979b New York
Xavier Fourcade Inc, New York, Arshile Gorky: Important Paintings and Drawings, April 3–28, 1979, ill. in color, as "To Protect, To Conjure".1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 163, ill. in color, p. 191, as "To Protect, To Conjure". Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.1994a New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: Late Paintings, January 11–March 5, 1994, ill. in color, p. 31; p. 42, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Literature
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. 86–87, as "To Project, To Conjure".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. 289, ill. in b/w, pp. 445–46, as "To Project, To Conjure".Lader 1985
Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. Monograph, fig. 83, ill. in color, p. 84, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Kimmelman 1994
Kimmelman, Michael. "Arshile Gorky: Late Years of a Tragic Figure." New York Times, February 6, 1994, ill. in b/w, sec. 2, p. 31, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Tesch and Hollmann 1997
Tesch, Jürgen, and Eckhard Hollmann, eds. Icons of Art: The 20th Century. Munich and New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1997, ill. in color, p. 117, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Herrera 2003
Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 155, ill. in color, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Thomas 2003
Thomas, Kelly Devine. "The Most Wanted Works of Art." Artnews (New York) (November 1, 2003), discussed, as "To Protect, To Conjure".Notes
Commentary
According to the artist's wife Agnes "Mougouch" Gorky (1921–2013), To Project, To Conjure was a lifetime title, which was 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).1 Given there is no known extant lifetime documentation confirming the title's origin with the artist, we have designated it as posthumous, with its spelling in accordance with Jim M. Jordan's catalogue raisonné.2
1. Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, March 6–31, 1945.
2. 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), 445–46.
