20th century phenomenon, Arshil Gorky, impressed the American public and the world with his never seen before contemporary art. He was a man before his time. It took years to understand and give value to all what he did and what he contributed to American art history. Talented artist, Arshil Gorky, was born in a village situated near Lake Van, in historic Armenia, sometime between 1902–1905. No one exactly knows the exact year of his birth. He was born in an Armenian family, who became unfortunate witnesses of the 20th century's first Genocide, the Armenian Genocide in 1915 conducted by the Ottoman Empire, to eliminate the whole Armenian population. As one of the many Armenian families, they were forced to leave their historic land and join the march. His mother died from starvation, leaving behind Gorky and his sisters. Gorky’s father had moved to the US before the Genocide, in 1910, and after his mother’s death Gorky moved to America to reunite with his dad. Arshil Gorky was born as Vostanik Manuk Adoyan (Արշիլ Գորկի, Վոստանիկ Մանուկ Ադոյան), and after he moved to the US he changed his name to start a new life, and to establish his identity. The influence of his name comes from the famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky.
Gorky’s work shows the influence of Cézanne and Rembrandt, in his own unique identity. His work is considered surrealism, and the origin of Abstract Expressionism. In his abstract paintings and drawings are notable nostalgia, memories of his childhood years of living in his hometown, spending time within wheat fields and nature. His latest works have some erotic figures, traditional Armenian wedding figures, nature, and even suffering.
His work is considered a “new language” in American art history. That is why his contribution to American and world art is extraordinary.
That’s the legacy of Armenian-American artist Arshil Gorky, who committed suicide after all the travails of his life combined. All his genocide memories and the horrifying death of his mother weren’t enough: his wife left him taking the kids with her, his studio burned down with lots of his artwork, he got into a car accident, and eventually he was diagnosed with cancer. The world became a heavy burden on his shoulders, and he committed suicide. Arshil Gorky died at age 44, leaving tremendous valuable artwork to America worth millions of dollars. His artworks are all over the American museums: National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (which maintains the Gorky Archive), and in many museums worldwide, including the Tate in London.
The Artist and His Mother: Memory and Homeland
Among Gorky's most revered masterpieces are the two versions of The Artist and His Mother (painted between 1926 and 1936, housed in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Gallery of Art), based on a 1912 photograph taken in Van of the young Vostanik standing beside his mother, Lady Shushanik Der Marderosian, before the 1915 deportations. Through luminous, smoothed planes of ochre, terracotta, and porcelain white, Gorky transformed a surviving family photograph into an enduring monument to maternal devotion, childhood memory, and Armenian cultural survival.