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Photo: Jon Etter
P318
The Limit
1947
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
50 3/4 x 62 in. (128.9 x 157.5 cm)
Front, upper right: A Gorky / 47 / [paraph]
Reverse not inscribed
Reverse not inscribed
Private collection
Provenance
The artist
Julien Levy Gallery, New York (1947)
Julien Levy, Bridgewater, Connecticut (1949)
Estate of Arshile Gorky, by transfer (March 1950)
[Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (by February 1953)]
Estate of Arshile Gorky (after October 1959)
Private collection
[Hauser & Wirth (2021)]
Private collection (2022)
Exhibitions
1948b New York
Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, February 29–March 20, 1948, no. 9, as The Limit.1951a New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Arshile Gorky Memorial Exhibition, January 5–February 18, 1951, no. 48, p. 47, as The Limit. Traveled to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, March 4–April 22, 1951; San Francisco Museum of Art, California, May 9–July 9, 1951.1952 Princeton
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, Arshile Gorky: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, October 6–26, 1952, no. 19, as The Limit.1953b New York
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky in the Final Years, February 16–March 14, 1953, no. 17, as The Limit.1957 Minneapolis
Minneapolis Institute of Art, American Paintings 1945–1957, June 18–September 1, 1957, no. 50, ill. in b/w, p. 21, as The Limit.1957f New York
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 33 Paintings by Arshile Gorky, December 2–28, 1957. (Exhibition catalogue: Sidney Janis Gallery 1957), no. 26, ill. in color, as The Limit.1958–59 IC–MoMA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, International Council (organizer), The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958–59, as The Limit, [Basel: no. 19; Madrid: no. 19; Amsterdam: no. 19; Brussels: no. 19; Paris: no. 18; London: no. 18; New York: no. 18]. Traveled to: Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, April 19–May 26, 1958 (as Die neue amerikanische Malerei); Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Milan, June 1–30, 1958 (as La Nuova Pittura Americana); Museum Nacional de Art Contemporaneo, Madrid, July 16–August 11, 1958 (as La Nueva Pintura Americana); Hochschule für Bildende Kunste, Berlin, September 1–October 1, 1958 (as Die neue amerikanische Malerei); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, October 17–November 24, 1958 (as Jong Amerika schildert); Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Brussels, December 6, 1958–January 4, 1959 (as La nouvelle peinture américaine); Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, January 16–February 15, 1959 (as Jackson Pollock et la nouvelle peinture américaine); Tate Gallery, London, February 24–March 22, 1959; Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 28–September 8, 1959.1962 Venice
XXXI Biennale di Venezia: Internazionale d'Arte, U.S. Pavillion, Venice, Italy, Arshile Gorky, June 16–October 7, 1962, no. 22, p. 114, as "Il limite".1962–63b New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Arshile Gorky, 1904–1948, December 19, 1962–February 12, 1963. (Exhibition catalogue: Seitz 1962), no. 108, ill. in b/w, p. 44; p. 56, as The Limit. Traveled to: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, D.C., March 12–April 14, 1963.1965 AC–Brussels and Rotterdam
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Arshile Gorky, Paintings and Drawings / Arshile Gorky: Schilderijen en Tekeningen, 1965, no. 116, ill. in b/w, as "De uiterste grens / The limit". 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. 89, ill. in b/w, as The Limit.1967 Paris
M. Knoedler et Cie, Paris, Six peintres américains: Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, October 19–November 25, 1967, ill. in b/w, as The Limit.1969c New York
M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky, de Kooning, Newman, June 26–September 20, 1969, as The Limit.1969–70a New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970, October 18, 1969–February 8, 1970. (Exhibition catalogue: Geldzahler 1969), no. 96, as The Limit.1975–77 AC–London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London (organizer), Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings, 1975–77, no. 16, ill. in b/w, as The Limit. 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, 1977.1978 Ithaca
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (organized in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years, March 30–May 14, 1978. (Exhibition catalogue: Hobbs and Levin 1978); (Exhibition catalogue: Levin 1978a); (Exhibition catalogue: Levin 1978b), as The Limit. Traveled to: Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, June 17–July 12, 1978; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 5–December 3, 1978.1979b New York
Xavier Fourcade Inc, New York, Arshile Gorky: Important Paintings and Drawings, April 3–28, 1979, ill. in color, as The Limit.1981–82 New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 248, ill. in color, p. 252, as The Limit. Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.1995–96 Fort Worth / Buffalo
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (organizers), Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years, 1995–96, no. 42, ill. in color, p. 173, as The Limit. Traveled to: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 7–September 17, 1995; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, October 13–December 31, 1995; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, January 13–March 17, 1996.2009–10 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 183, ill. in color, p. 346; p. 392, as The Limit. 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).2011b New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: 1947, May 6–July 1, 2011, as The Limit.2013–14 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Joan Miró and Arshile Gorky: In Dialogue, October 16, 2013–May 19, 2014, as The Limit.2016–17 London
Royal Academy of Arts, London, Abstract Expressionism, September 24, 2016–January 2, 2017. (Exhibition catalogue: Devaney and Wurst 2016), no. 31, ill. in color, p. 163, as The Limit. Traveled to: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, February 3–June 4, 2017.2019 Venice
Ca'Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy, Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948, May 8–September 22, 2019, ill. in color, p. 211; details ill. in color, pp. 212–13, as The Limit.2021–22a New York
Hauser & Wirth, New York, Arshile Gorky: Beyond The Limit, November 16–December 23, 2021, ill. in color, p. 8; ill. in color (details), cover, pp. 4–7, as The Limit. Traveled to: Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, February 4–March 19, 2022.Literature
Ballard 1951
Ballard, Louis. "Art." Arts & Architecture (Los Angeles) 68 (May 1951), discussed p. 11, as The Limit.Genauer 1951
Genauer, Emily. "Art and Artists: The Whitney's Memorial Exhibit and the Arshile Gorky Tragedy." New York Herald Tribune, January 7, 1951, discussed p. 9, as The Limit.Coates 1953
Coates, Robert M. "The Art Galleries." The New Yorker 29 (February 28, 1953), discussed p. 83, as The Limit.McBride 1953
McBride, Henry. "Success at last." Artnews (New York) 52 (April 1953), discussed p. 67, as The Limit.Coates 1957
Coates, Robert M. "The Art Galleries." The New Yorker 33 (December 14, 1957), discussed p. 142, as The Limit.Sawin 1957
Sawin, Martica. "Arshile Gorky." Arts Magazine (New York) 32, no. 3 (December 1957), discussed p. 52, as The Limit.Schwabacher 1957
Schwabacher, Ethel. Arshile Gorky. Introduction by Meyer Schapiro. New York: The Macmillan Company for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1957. Monograph, pl. VII, ill. in color, as The Limit.Sidney Janis Gallery 1957
33 Paintings by Arshile Gorky. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1957. Exhibition catalogue (1957f New York), no. 40, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "Gallery View, Gorky Exhibition, February 1953".Rosenblum 1958a
Rosenblum, Robert. "Arshile Gorky." Review of Arshile Gorky, by Ethel Schwabacher. Arts Magazine (New York) 32, no. 4 (January 1958), discussed p. 33, as The Limit.Rudikoff 1958a
Rudikoff, Sonya. "Gorky and Tomlin." Review of Arshile Gorky, by Ethel Schwabacher. Partisan Review (New York) 25, no. 1 (Winter 1958), discussed pp. 159–160, as The Limit.Sidney Janis Gallery 1959
Late Drawings by Gorky. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1959. Exhibition catalogue (1959b New York), no. 38, ill. in b/w (in situ), as The Limit, in "Gallery View, Gorky Exhibition, December 1957".Rosenberg 1960
Rosenberg, Harold. "Arshile Gorky: The Last Move." The Hudson Review (New York) 13 (Spring 1960), discussed p. 110, as The Limit.Reiff 1961
Reiff, Robert F. "A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky's Art from 1943–1948." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1961, fig. 63, ill. in b/w, p. 341, as The Limit.Boatto 1962
Boatto, Alberto. "L'itinerario di Gorky." Arte Oggi (Rome) 14 (June–December 1962), discussed p. 15, as "Il limite".Rosenberg 1962a
Rosenberg, Harold. Arshile Gorky: The Man, the Time, the Idea. New York: Horizon Press, 1962. Monograph, ill. in color, pp. 58–59, as The Limit.Reiff 1963a
Reiff, Robert. "The Late Works of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Estimate." Art Journal (New York) 22, no. 3 (Spring 1963), discussed p. 149, as The Limit.Roberts 1965
Roberts, Keith. "Major Retrospective at the Tate." The Burlington Magazine (London) 107, no. 746 (May 1965), discussed p. 271, as The Limit.Levy 1966
Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 196, ill. in color, p. 220, as The Limit.Passeron 1968
Passeron, René. Histoire de la peinture surréaliste. Paris: Librairie Le Livre de Poche, 1968, discussed p. 245, as "La Limite".Geldzahler 1969
Geldzahler, Henry. New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970. New York: E.P. Dutton, in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969. Exhibition catalogue (1969–70a New York), no. 96, ill. in b/w, p. 162; p. 46, as The Limit.Reiff 1976
Reiff, Robert. "Arshile Gorky's Object Matter." Arts Magazine (New York) 50, no. 7 (March 1976), discussed p. 93, as The Limit.Feaver 1977
Feaver, William. "Art: Working in a Trance." Observer Review (London, UK), January 9, 1977, discussed p. 19, as The Limit.Levin 1978b
Levin, Gail. "Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)." In Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1978. Exhibition catalogue (1978 Ithaca), fig. 64, ill. in b/w, p. 73, as The Limit.Rose 1979
Rose, Barbara. "Gorky, Tragic Poet of Abstract Expressionism." Vogue (New York) 169 (October 1979), ill. in color, pp. 354–55, as The Limit.FitzGerald 1980
FitzGerald, Michael. "Arshile Gorky's The Limit." Arts Magazine (New York) 54 (March 1980), fig. 1, ill. in b/w, p. 110, as The Limit.Monte 1981
Monte, James. "The Life and Work of Arshile Gorky." Museum Magazine (Arlington, VA) 2 (June–August 1981), ill. in color, p. 47, as The Limit.Rand 1981
Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun & Co. Publishers Inc., and London: George Prior Associated Publishers Ltd., 1981. Monograph, fig. 11–3, ill. in b/w, p. 171, as The Limit.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. 58, as The Limit.Wolff 1981b
Wolff, Theodore F. "The Many Masks of Modern Art." Christian Science Monitor (Boston) (May 26, 1981), ill. in b/w (repr. upside down), p. 24, as The Limit.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. 318, pl. 8, ill. in color, p. 112; ill. in b/w (repr. 90 degrees counterclockwise), pp. 487–89, as The Limit.Nercessian 1983
Nercessian, Nora N. "The Defeat of Arshile Gorky." Armenian Review (Watertown, MA) 36, no. 1 (Spring 1983), discussed p. 91, as The Limit.Seitz 1983
Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art, 1983, fig. 80, ill. in b/w, as The Limit.Lader 1985
Lader, Melvin P. Arshile Gorky. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985. Monograph, fig. 101, ill. in b/w, p. 100, as The Limit.Rand 1991
Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Rev. ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Monograph, fig. 11–3, ill. in b/w, p. 194, as The Limit.Spender 1999
Spender, Matthew. From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1999, discussed pp. 323, 350, as The Limit.Herrera 2003
Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 173, ill. in color, as The Limit.Beredjiklian 2007
Beredjiklian, Alexandre. Arshile Gorky: sept thèmes majeurs. Suresnes, France: Alphamédian & Johanet; Lisbon: Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 2007. Monograph, discussed pp. 14, 55, 56, 59, 60, as "Il limite".Mattison 2009
Matttison, Robert S. Arshile Gorky: Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafica, 2009. Monograph, ill. in color, p. 127, as The Limit.Cascone 2021
Cascone, Sarah. "During Routine Maintenance, Conservators Discovered an Unknown Arshile Gorky Painting Hidden Behind a Work on Paper." Artnet News, October 21, 2021, ill. in color, as The Limit.Loos 2021
Loos, Ted. "Art That Was Hiding in Plain Sight." New York Times, October 24, 2021, ill. in color, p. F14, as The Limit.McGreevy 2021
McGreevy, Nora. "This Arshile Gorky Painting Spent 70 Years Hidden in Plain Sight." Smithsonian Magazine, October 28, 2021, ill. in color, as The Limit.Mack 2022
Mack, Gerhard. "Meisterwerk Entdeckt." Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 6, 2022, ill. in color, p. 59, as The Limit.Fer 2023
Fer, Briony. "The limits of painting: The space between abstraction and figuration in the work of Louise Bourgeois and Arshile Gorky." In Louise Bourgeois. Imaginary Conversations / Louise Bourgeois. Imaginaere samtaler. Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2023. Exhibition catalogue (2023 Oslo), no. 114, ill. in color, p. 150; pp. 151, 238, as The Limit.Notes
The paper was mounted on canvas by the artist. The verso of the original paper support is not inscribed. The reverse of the original canvas support, which has since been separated, is inscribed, possibly in the artist's hand, "THE LIMIT" (see commentary). The verso and reverse inscription information are known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.
On loan: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 20, 1988–May 29, 2001; Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 1, 2009–April 24, 2019.
Commentary
The painting's overall composition is prefigured in a drawing dating to 1946 (see related work).
Gorky titled the painting The Limit in preparation for its showing at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, which took place several months before his death in July of that year.1 Levy (1906–1981), Gorky's last lifetime dealer, later recalled the artist having remarked that his title arose from feeling “. . . so lonely, exasperated, and how to paint such empty space—so empty it’s the limit. . . .”2 By the time the painting was created in 1947, in part due to André Breton's (1896–1966) departure from New York in December 1945, Gorky's process for arriving at titles had evolved from its earlier basis in collaborative plays of free association (see commentary for P287), to an increasingly succinct "vocabulary" that was "more manifest and less a process of discovery," as is encapsulated here.3
Gorky mounted the oil on paper painting on to an auxiliary canvas support using four strips of a gummed Kraft paper tape. In 2007, when The Limit was undergoing maintenance conservation, small spots of paint were discovered seeping through the reverse of the canvas support. In 2020, during conservation, a second painting, executed on the auxiliary canvas and attached to the original stretcher, was discovered beneath the paper support of The Limit. Both paintings had shared the same stretcher for over seventy years until they were separated in 2020. The Limit was subsequently mounted on a second sheet of paper and a new canvas support. The newly discovered work is catalogued as P397.
1. Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, February 29–March 20, 1948. No catalogue. The works that appeared in the exhibition are known from a price list on file in the Julien Levy papers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives.
2. Julien Levy, Arshile Gorky (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1966), 35.
3. Ibid, 36.
![[Virginia Summer]c. 1946–47 P397](https://cdn.panopticoncr.com/arshgor001/catalogue_images/main_sm/oqzvjukw/GORKY107665-11-1.jpg "[Virginia Summer]c. 1946–47 P397")
