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Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné

Catalogue Entry

D0219
[Drawing for an Unrealized Mural Project]
c. 1936; c. 1945
India ink and ink wash on paper
22 x 29 7/8 in. (55.9 x 75.9 cm)
Recto, in ink, lower left: A Gorky [strikethrough]; lower center: A Gorky; lower right: A Gorky / [paraph]
Verso not inscribed
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) on Deposit at CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Provenance
Vartoosh [Adoian] and Karlen Mooradian, Chicago (by c. 1952)
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), by bequest (April 24, 1991)
Exhibitions
1973–74 Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, An Exhibition of Drawings by Arshile Gorky, October 28–November 25, 1973, no. 3, ill. in b/w, p. 6; p. 34, as "Objects," dated 1932. Traveled to: Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, December 9, 1973–January 6, 1974; New Orleans Museum of Art, January 20–February 17, 1974; Amarillo Art Center, Texas, March 10–April 7, 1974; University Museum Illinois State University, Normal, April 21–May 19, 1974.
1978–80 Newark
Newark Museum, New Jersey, Murals without Walls: Arshile Gorky's Aviation Murals Rediscovered, November 15, 1978–March 11, 1979. (Exhibition catalogue: O'Connor 1978b), no. 34, as "Mural Study" , n.d. Traveled to: Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, New York, July 1–August 26, 1979; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 4–November 25, 1979; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, December 23, 1979–February 3, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 28–April 20, 1980; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California, May 10–June 22, 1980; Queens Museum, New York, September 6–November 2, 1980.
1984–85 Lisbon
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José Azeredo Perdigão, Lisbon, Arshile Gorky: Collection Mooradian, October 24–November 25, 1984, no. 18, ill. in color, p. 104, as "Architectonic Panel: Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia and Painting," dated 1936–37. Traveled to: Centre Culturel Portugais, Paris, January 17–March 9, 1985.
2007 Paris
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José Azeredo Perdigão, Lisbon (organizers), Arshile Gorky: Hommage, 2007, ill. in color, p. 47, as "Panneau architectonique. Nuit, énigme et nostalgie et Peinture / Architectonic Panel. Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia and Painting," dated c. 1936–37. Traveled to: Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, April 2–June 4, 2007; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, April 2–June 4, 2007.
2009–10 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective, October 15, 2009–January 10, 2010. (Exhibition catalogue: Taylor 2009a), pl. 50, ill. in color, p. 206; p. 389, as "Study for Murals at Rikers Island Penitentiary," dated c. 1941–42 (with later additions). 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).
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, ill. in color, p. 6, as "Study for Murals at Rikers Island Penitentiary / Estudio para Murals na Penitenciária da Ilha Rikers," dated c. 1941–42 (wither later additions).
Literature
Mooradian 1978
Mooradian, Karlen. Arshile Gorky Adoian. Chicago: Gilgamesh Press, 1978. Monograph, fig. 53, ill. in color, p. 70, as "Architectonic Panel: Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia and Painting (Study for Mural)," dated 1936–1937; fig. 10, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 9 as "Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia"; fig. 11, ill. in b/w (detail), p. 9, as "Painting from Architectonic Panel: Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia and Painting".
Mooradian 1982
Mooradian, Karlen, and Takahiko Okada. アーシル・ゴーキー: ある異邦人との対話 (The Life of Arshile Gorky). Tokyo: PARCO Co. Ltd., 1982. Monograph, no. 18, ill. in color, pp. 32–33, as "Architectonic Panel: Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia and Painting," dated 1936–1937.
Notes

A crease in the center of the sheet indicates that the drawing had been folded in half.

Verso, in pencil, lower left [not in artist's hand]: AGd6; in blue ink, upper right: [illegible]; in pencil, lower right: 4 [circled] 

The verso inscription information and marking are known from the records of the Arshile Gorky Foundation.

On loan: Art Institute of Chicago, [unknown date]–September 19, 1984.

On loan: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1985–present.

Commentary

The drawing's architectural components, including the central stage and flanking doorframes, suggest that it is related to a mural project (see also D0215). The project, however, is unidentified and presumed unrealized. The composition in the upper left is directly related to Objects, a series of drawings by Gorky of which there are thirty-two known examples. The series’ title derives from that which Gorky gave to the drawing D0140 when it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in January 1941 (see that work’s commentary). The composition in the upper right is directly related to Gorky’s oil on canvas Painting (P173), which he dated to 1936–37. The biomorphic forms in the lower quadrant of the sheet date to the mid-1940s.

Vartoosh Mooradian (née Adoian; 1906–1991), the artist’s younger sister, either received the drawing by gift from Gorky or from the Estate of Arshile Gorky, c. 1952.

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