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Photo: Jon Etter
P397
[Virginia Summer]
c. 1946–47
Oil on burlap
50 9/16 x 62 5/8 in. (128.5 x 159 cm)
Front not inscribed
Reverse, in pencil, upper stretcher bar [possibly in artist's hand]: THE LIMIT
Reverse, in pencil, upper stretcher bar [possibly in artist's hand]: THE LIMIT
Private collection
Provenance
Private collection (2020)
Exhibitions
2021–22a New York
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, 2022.2024c New York
Hauser & Wirth, New York, Arshile Gorky: New York City, September 4–October 26, 2024, no. 15, as "Untitled (Virginia Summer)".Literature
Cascone 2021
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 2021
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 2021
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 2022
Mack, Gerhard. "Meisterwerk Entdeckt." Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 6, 2022, ill. in color, p. 59, as "Ohne Titel (Virginia Summer)".Wilkin 2024
Wilkin, Karen. "An Enigmatic Evolution." Wall Street Journal (New York), October 8, 2024, ill. in color, as "Untitled (Virginia Summer)," [online edition only].Robbins 2025
Robbins, Christa Noel. "Arshile Gorky's Fabulous Origins." In Arshile Gorky: New York City, edited by Ben Eastham. Zurich: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2025. Monograph, discussed p. 50; ill. in color, pp. 48–49, as "Virginia Summer".Notes
The reverse inscription is 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, Virginia—the 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.
