Arshile Gorky Catalogue Raisonné
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Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Jon Etter
P397
[Virginia Summer]
c. 1946–47
Oil on canvas
50 9/16 x 62 5/8 in. (128.5 x 159 cm)
Not inscribed
Private collection
Provenance
Private collection (2020)
Exhibitions
Hauser & Wirth, New York, Arshile Gorky: Beyond The Limit, November 16–December 23, 2021, ill. in color, p. 21; ill. in color (details), pp. 22–27, as "Untitled (Virginia Summer)". Traveled to: Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, February 4–March 19, 2022.
Literature
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 "Untitled (Virginia Summer)".
Loos, Ted. "Art That Was Hiding in Plain Sight." New York Times, October 24, 2021, ill. in color, p. F14, as "Untitled (Virginia Summer)".
McGreevy, Nora. "This Arshile Gorky Painting Spent 70 Years Hidden in Plain Sight." Smithsonian Magazine, October 28, 2021, ill. in color, as "Untitled (Virginia Summer)".
Mack, Gerhard. "Meisterwerk Entdeckt." Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 6, 2022, ill. in color, p. 59, as "Ohne Titel (Virginia Summer)".
Notes

Reverse, in pencil, upper stretcher bar [possibly in artist's hand]: THE LIMIT

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

Commentary

The painting's overall composition is prefigured in several drawings dating to 1946 that Gorky made at Crooked Run Farm in Lincoln, Virginiathe country home of Gorky's in-laws, the Magruders (see related work). In accordance with the drawings, the painting is catalogued here by the posthumous title Virginia Summer.

The painting was discovered in 2020 beneath Gorky's 1947 painting, The Limit (P318). Gorky had mounted both works onto the same stretcher, which they shared for over seventy years until their separation in 2020.

Related Work
The Limit1947 P318
1947
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
P318
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
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