Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Genevieve Hanson
P345
Anti Medusa
1947
Oil on canvas
36 x 44 in. (91.4 x 111.8 cm)
Front, center left: A Gorky / 47 / [paraph]
Reverse not inscribed
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) on Deposit at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Exhibitions
1948b New York
Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky, February 29–March 20, 1948, no. 13, as Anti Medusa.
1974–75 Düsseldorf
Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Surrealität-Bildrealität, 1924–1974, December 8, 1974–February 2, 1975, no. 114, p. 82; ill. in b/w, p. 83, as "Ante-Medusa". Traveled to: Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany, February 14–April 13, 1975.
1984–85 Lisbon
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José Azeredo Perdigão, Lisbon, Arshile Gorky: Collection Mooradian, October 24–November 25, 1984, no. 12, ill. in color, p. 100, as "Ante-Medusa". Traveled to: Centre Culturel Portugais, Paris, January 17–March 9, 1985.
2011b New York
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: 1947, May 6–July 1, 2011, as "Ante-Medusa".
2014–15 Lisbon
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José Azeredo Perdigão, Lisbon, Arshile Gorky e a Coleção, June 4, 2014–May 31, 2015, as "Ante-Medusa".
2017 New York
Hauser & Wirth, New York, Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943–47, November 2–December 23, 2017. (Exhibition catalogue: Spender and Devaney 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. 135, as "Anti-Medusa".
2022 Lisbon
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José Azeredo Perdigão, Lisbon, to go to. Jorge Queiroz | Arshile Gorky, July 8–October 17, 2022, ill. in color, pp. 81–82, as "Ante-Medusa".
Literature
Mooradian 1980
Mooradian, Karlen. The Many Worlds of Arshile Gorky. Chicago: Gilgamesh Press, 1980. Monograph, fig. 32, ill. in b/w, p. 234; fig. 33, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 234; fig. 34, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 235, as "Ante-Medusa".
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 p. 91, as "Anti-Medusa".
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. 345, ill. in b/w, pp. 523–24, as "Anti-Medusa".
Notes

The reverse inscription information is known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation. The stretcher bars have been replaced.

On loan: Art Institute of Chicago, March 12, 1964–September 19, 1984.

Commentary

Gorky titled the painting Anti Medusa in preparation for its 1948 showing at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, which took place several months before his death in July of that year.

The painting was a gift from the Estate of Arshile Gorky to the artist's younger sister Vartoosh Mooradian (née Adoian; 1906–1991). During a period that ultimately lasted four years and eight months—between June 1915, when forcibly displaced by the Armenian genocide, and February 26, 1920, when they arrived at Ellis Island aboard the Italian ship, the S.S. Presidente Wilson—the two siblings emigrated together to the United States, through ports that included Batumi, Georgia; Constantinople (present-day Istanbul); Athens; Patras, Greece; and Naples.  

Anti Medusa, 1947, P345. Anti Medusa as seen in Vartoosh's home in Chicago, 1962. Unknown photographer. Estate of Arshile Gorky Archive.
Anti Medusa as seen in Vartoosh's home in Chicago, 1962. Unknown photographer. Estate of Arshile Gorky Archive.
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