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Photo: Edward C. Robison III
P301
Child's Companions
1945
Oil on canvas
34 1/8 x 46 1/8 in. (86.7 x 117.2 cm)
Front, center left: A Gorky / [paraph] / 45
Reverse not inscribed
Reverse not inscribed
Provenance
Private collection (c. 1972)
Exhibitions
Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: Paintings: 1946, April 9–May 4, 1946, no. 7, as Child's Companions.
Kootz Gallery, New York, Selected Paintings by the Late Arshile Gorky, March 28–April 24, 1950, as Child's Companions.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, December 19, 1962–February 12, 1963 (Exhibition catalogue: Seitz 1962), no. 77, p. 54, as Child's Companions. Traveled to: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, D.C, March 12–April 14, 1963.
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Max Ernst and Arshile Gorky from the Collection of Julien Levy, March 19–May 3, 1964, no. 21, ill. in b/w, as Child's Companions.
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York (organizer), Gallery at the Better Living Center at the New York World's Fair, Queens, Four Centuries of American Masterpieces, May 22–October 18, 1964, no. 30, as "Child's Companion".
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York School: the First Generation, Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, July 16–August 1, 1965 (Exhibition catalogue: LACMA 1971), no. 21, ill. in b/w, p. 81, as Child's Companions.
Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Kompass III: Schilderkunst na 1945 uit New York / Malerei nach 1945 aus New York / Paintings after 1945 in New York, November 9–December 17, 1967, no. 4, ill. in b/w, pp. 23, 36, as "Child Companions". Traveled to: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, December 30, 1967–February 11, 1968.
M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky, de Kooning, Newman, June 26–September 20, 1969, as "Child's Companion".
Pasadena Art Museum, California, Painting in New York: 1944 to 1969, November 24, 1969–January 11, 1970, no. 2, ill. in color, p. 18, as Child's Companions.
Galerie Brusberg, Hannover, Germany, Arshile Gorky, June 18–August 31, 1971, p. 16; ill. in color, p. 17, as Child's Companions.
Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark, Amerikansk kunst 1950–70, September 11–October 24, 1971, no. 13, as "Legekammerater".
Galleria Galatea, Turin, Italy, Arshile Gorky, February 29–March 27, 1972, ill. in color, as Child's Companions.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (organizers), Arshile Gorky: Hommage, 2007, ill. in color, p. 65, as "Les Compagnons d'enfance / Child's Companions". Traveled to: Centre culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, April 2–June 4, 2007; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, April 2–June 4, 2007.
Literature
Miller, Dorothy C., ed. Fourteen Americans. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946. Exhibition catalogue (1946c New York), no. 38, p. 77, as Child's Companions.
M.B. [Margaret Breuning]. "A Memorial for Arshile Gorky." Art Digest (New York) 24, no. 13 (April 1, 1950), discussed p. 18, as "Child Companions".
Schwabacher, Ethel. Arshile Gorky. New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1957. Monograph, discussed p. 102, as "Child's Companion".
Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 132, ill. in color, p. 156, as Child's Companions.
Galerie Brusberg, ed. "Arshile Gorky." Brusberg-Berichte 12 (1971), ill. in color, p. 41, as Child's Companions.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York School: the First Generation, Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Forward by Maurice Tuchman. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1971 (1965b Los Angeles), fig. 28, ill. in b/w, p. 63, as Child's Companions.
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. 301, ill. in b/w, pp. 462–63, as Child's Companions.
Cooper, Harry. "To Organize Painting." In Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, edited by Michael Taylor. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 46, ill. in color, p. 68, as Child's Companions.
Notes
Reverse, in pencil, on a section of the canvas folded around the upper stretcher bar [not in artist's hand]: Child's Companions
The reverse is covered by a backing board; the inscription information and marking are known from photographs provided by Christie's, New York.
Commentary
The painting's overall composition is closely referenced in two known drawings (see related work).
The painting was titled by Gorky in anticipation of his spring 1946 solo show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, likely through a collaborative process of free association, which he and André Breton (1896–1966) had experimented with a year earlier (see commentary for P287).1
1. Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: Paintings, April 9–May 4, 1946.
Related Work
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