P349
(Summer Snow)
1947
Oil on canvas
30 1/2 x 36 in. (77.5 x 91.4 cm)
Front, upper right: A. Gorky / 47 / [paraph]
Reverse not seen
Reverse not seen
Private collection
Provenance
Private collection (1998)
Private collection (2003)
Exhibitions
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 33 Paintings by Arshile Gorky, December 2–28, 1957. (Exhibition catalogue: Sidney Janis Gallery 1957), no. 34, ill. in b/w, as "Summer Snow".
Galleria Pasquale Falanga, Milan, Mostre tra l'antico e il moderno, May 1961.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Acquisition Priorities: Aspects of Postwar Painting in America; Including Arshile Gorky: Works 1944–1948, October 15, 1976–January 16, 1977, no. 5, ill. in b/w, as "Summer Snow".
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 20th-Century American Art from Friends' Collections, July 27–September 27, 1977, as "Summer Snows".
Rheinhallen, Cologne, Westkunst. Zeitgenössische Kunst nach 1939, May 30–August 16, 1981, no. 240, ill. in b/w, p. 373, as "Summer snow (Sommer-Schnee)".
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (organizers), Arshile Gorky: The Breakthrough Years, 1995–96, no. 22, ill. in color, p. 133, as "Summer Snow". 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.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Founders and Heirs of the New York School, January 25–March 16, 1997, no. 17, ill. in color, p. 67, as "Summer Snow". Traveled to: Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai, Japan, April 5–May 25, 1997; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Japan, June 28–August 3, 1997.
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Arshile Gorky: 1947, May 6–July 1, 2011.
Literature
Devree, Howard. "Diverse Moderns: Growth of the Niarchos Collection—Gorky in Retrospect—Others." New York Times, December 8, 1957, discussed, sec. 2, p. 24, as "Summer Snow".
Late Drawings by Gorky. New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1959. Exhibition catalogue (1959b New York), no. 38, ill. in b/w (in situ), as "Summer Snow," in "Gallery View, Gorky Exhibition, December 1957".
Camesasca, Ettore. "'Tra l'antico e il moderno': Una galleria milanese ha allestito tre interessanti esposizioni in una." Le Arti (Milan), no. 3-4 (April 1961), ill. in b/w (in situ), p. 39, as "Summer Show".
Reiff, Robert F. "A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky's Art from 1943–1948." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1961, fig. 94, ill. in b/w, p. 372, as "Summer Snow".
Hunter, Sam. "Abstract Expressionism Then—and Now." Canadian Art (Toronto) 21 (September 1964), ill. in b/w, p. 266, as "Summer Snow".
Levy, Julien. Arshile Gorky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966. Monograph, pl. 199, ill. in b/w, p. 223, as "Summer Snow".
Jordan, Jim M. Gorky: Drawings. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., 1969. Exhibition catalogue (1969e New York), fig. 9, ill. in b/w, p. 15, as "Summer Snow".
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. 12–13, ill. in b/w, p. 193, as "Summer Snow".
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. 349, ill. in b/w, pp. 528–29, as "Summer Snow".
Rand, Harry. Arshile Gorky: The Implication of Symbols. Rev. ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Monograph, fig. 12–13, ill. in b/w, p. 215, as "Summer Snow".
Balakian, Peter. "Arshile Gorky and the Armenian Genocide." Art in America (New York) 84 (February 1996), discussed p. 59, as "Summer Snow".
Notes
Commentary
The painting's overall composition is closely related to two other canvases by the artist, Pastoral (P347) and Terra Cotta (P348), and is referenced in eight known drawings (see related work).
Although the title, Summer Snow, is identified as lifetime in Jim M. Jordan's catalogue raisonné, there is no known extant documentation confirming its origin with the artist and we have therefore designated it as posthumous.1
1. 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), 528.
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