Arshile Gorky

Quotes

• “Stuart Davis.. ..is one of but few, who realized his canvas as a.. ..two-dimensional surface plane.”
• “Rimbaud has epitomized for me the true function of the artist when he wrote: 'The poet should define the quantity of the unknown which awakes in his time, in the universal soul. He should give more than the formula of his thought, than the annotation of his march toward progress. The enormous becoming the normal, when absorbed by everyone, he would really be a multiplication of progress.'”
• “Subject.. ..no specific scene but many incidents. – The first word I spoke was Argula – it has no meaning. I was then five years old. Thus I called this painting 'Argula' as I was entering a new period closer to my instincts.(Technique..:) Hundreds and hundreds of layers of paint to obtain the weight of reality – Art this period I measured by weight. [mid 1930's]”
• “These days a very melancholic mood has taken hold of me. There is nothing else but my work. My dear ones, I have been well and I have been working and my way of working is changing. For this reason I always feel extremely anxious. I am not content and perhaps I will not (ever) be satisfied with my work, not even for one day. I want to attain works which are more personal and clean.”
• “My sweet, I do not mean to upset you in writing this, but I want to tell you that within us, as within the nature of every person's soul there is an emptiness and we constantly seek to find that and those in order to escape from being alone. This always has been so, and always the weight of loneliness is with us, and for this reason we think of this thing or that so as not to be left alone.”
• “Art comes instinctively to us, but it is so uncertain. I have in front of me photographs of all Picasso’s best works. The mere I admire them the further I feel myself removed from all art, it seems so easy, so limited! We are part of the world creation, and we ourselves create nothing.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born

Vostanik Manoug Adoian , ( 1904-04-15 ) April 15, 1904, Khorgom , Vilayet of Van , Ottoman Empire (formerly Armenia )

Died

July 21, 1948 (1948-07-21) (aged 44), Sherman, Connecticut , U.S.

Known for

Painting, drawing

Notable work

Landscape in the Manner of Cézanne (1927) Nighttime, Enigma, Nostalgia (1930–1934)

Movement

Abstract Expressionism

via Wikipedia infobox

Key dates

Born

15 April 1904

Died

21 July 1948

via Wikidata · CC0

Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Gender

male

Citizenship

First Republic of Armenia

Place of birth

Dilkaya

Place of death

Sherman

Occupation

sculptor

Languages spoken

Armenian

Participant in

Documenta III

Field of work

painting

Genre

portrait

Movement

modern art

Image

Archives of American Art - Arshile Gorky - 3044.jpg

Work location

New York City

Residence

Tbilisi

via Wikidata · CC0