Kootz Gallery, New York, Selected Paintings by the Late Arshile Gorky, March 28–April 24, 1950. (Exhibition brochure: Gottlieb 1950), as "Pastoral II".

1958 San Francisco likely

Gump's Gallery, San Francisco, New York Painters, July 1–25, 1958, as "Pastorale".

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. 116, p. 56, as Pastoral. Traveled to: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, D.C., March 12–April 14, 1963.

1966–67 IC–MoMA

Museum of Modern Art, New York, International Council (organizer), Two Decades of American Painting, 1966–67, as Pastoral, [Japan: unnumbered checklist, p. 66]. Traveled to: National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, October 15–November 27, 1966; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, December 10, 1966–January 22, 1967; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, March 28–April 15, 1967; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, June 6–July 9, 1967; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, July 17–August 13, 1967.

1967–68 Turin

Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy, Le Muse Inquietanti: Maestri del Surrealismo, November 1967–January 1968, no. 263, ill. in b/w, p. 193, as "Pastorale".

1969c New York

M. Knoedler & Co. Inc, New York, Gorky, de Kooning, Newman, June 26–September 20, 1969, as Pastoral.

1972 Munich

Haus der Kunst, Munich, Der Surrealismus 1922–1942 / Le Surrealisme, 1922–1942, March 11–May 7, 1972, as Pastoral, [Munich: no. 189, ill. in b/w; Paris: no. 184, ill. in b/w]. Traveled to: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, May 26–July 23, 1972.

1979b New York

Xavier Fourcade Inc, New York, Arshile Gorky: Important Paintings and Drawings, April 3–28, 1979, ill. in color, as "Pastorale".

1981–82 New York

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Arshile Gorky 1904–1948: A Retrospective, April 24–July 19, 1981, no. 227, ill. in color, p. 240, as "Pastorale". Traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, September 12–November 6, 1981; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 3, 1981–February 28, 1982.

1993 Berlin

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993, May 8–July 25, 1993, no. 84, ill. in color, as "Pastorale". Traveled to: Royal Academy of Arts and Saatchi Gallery, London, September 16–December 12, 1993.

1997 Tokyo

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Founders and Heirs of the New York School, January 25–March 16, 1997, no. 18, ill. in color, p. 68, as Pastoral. Traveled to: Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan, April 5–May 25, 1997; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Japan, June 28–August 3, 1997.

2008 Moscow

Gagosian Gallery (organizer), Red October Chocolate Factory, Moscow, for what you are about to receive, September 18–October 25, 2008, ill. in color, p. 63; ill. in color, p. 227, as Pastoral.

2010 London

Gagosian Gallery, London, Arshile Gorky: Virginia Summer 1946, February 10–April 1, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Gagosian Gallery 2010), ill. in color, as Pastoral.

2011b New York

Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: 1947, May 6–July 1, 2011.

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), ill. in color, pp. 50–51; p. 139, as Pastoral.

2019 Venice

Ca'Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy, Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948, May 8–September 22, 2019, ill. in color, p. 131, as Pastoral.

Literature

Greenberg 1948b

Greenberg, Clement. "Art." The Nation (New York) 166 (March 20, 1948), discussed p. 332, as Pastoral.

Cross 1958 likely

Cross, Miriam Dungan. "Art: New York Painters' Show in S.F. Brings Mixed Reaction." Oakland Tribune (CA), July 20, 1958, discussed p. 2C, as "Pastorale".

Levy 1966

Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 200, ill. in b/w, p. 224, as Pastoral.

Jordan 1969

Jordan, Jim M. Gorky: Drawings. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., 1969. Exhibition catalogue (1969e New York), fig. 7, ill. in b/w, p. 14, as Pastoral.

Gibson 1979

Gibson, Eric. "Arshile Gorky." Art International (Paris) 23 (Summer 1979), discussed p. 77, as "Pastorale".

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. 12–14, ill. in b/w, p. 194, as Pastoral.

Spender 1981

Spender, Matthew. "The Originality of Gorky." Art/World (New York) (May 23 / June 20, 1981), discussed p. 5, as "Pastorale".

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 Pastoral.

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. 347, ill. in b/w, pp. 525–26, as Pastoral.

Corrin 1990

Corrin, Lisa. "Toward Armenia: Notes of a Journey." In Arshile Gorky: 1904–1948. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 4, ill. in b/w, p. 178, as Pastoral.

Spender 1990a

Spender, Matthew. "Origines et développement de l'oeuvre dessiné de Arshile Gorky / Quellen und Entwicklung von Arshile Gorkys zeichnerischem Werk." In Arshile Gorky: Œuvres sur Papier, 1929–1947 / Arbeiten auf Papier, 1929–1947, edited by Erika Billeter. Lausanne: Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, 1990. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 20, ill. in b/w, p. 38, as Pastoral.

Rand 1991

Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Rev. ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Monograph, fig. 12–14, ill. in b/w, p. 216, as Pastoral.

Herrera 2003

Herrera, Hayden. Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, fig. 171, ill. in color, as Pastoral.

Cotter 2017

Cotter, Holland. "The Art of Bliss Remembered." New York Times, December 8, 2017, ill. in color, p. 19, as Pastoral.

Rhodes 2017

Rhodes, David. "Ardent Nature: Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943–47." The Brooklyn Rail (NY) (December 2017–January 2018), ill. in b/w, p. 69, as Pastoral.

Tuchman 2018

Tuchman, Phyllis. "Arshile Gorky." Artforum (New York) 56, no. 5 (January 2018), ill. in color, p. 212, as Pastoral.

Field 2021

Field, Parker. "Beyond The Limit." In Arshile Gorky: Beyond The Limit, edited by Jennifer Magee. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2021. Exhibition catalogue, discussed p. 11; ill. in color, p. 48, as Pastoral.

Notes

The reverse inscription information is known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.

Commentary

The painting's overall composition is closely related to two other canvases by the artist, Summer Snow (P349) and Terra Cotta (P348), and is referenced in eight known drawings (see related work).

Gorky titled the painting Pastoral 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.¹ According to Julien Levy (1906–1981), by this point, 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."²

In 2010, when Pastoral was reframed in preparation for an exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, London, a second, previously unseen painting was discovered underneath it, affixed to the original stretcher. Gorky had mounted Pastoral directly over this second work and both paintings shared the same stretcher for over sixty years until they were separated in 2010. Pastoral was subsequently mounted on a new stretcher. The newly uncovered work, catalogued here as P370, is characteristic of the Pastoral series.

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), 36.

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