With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Arshile Gorky
Painting/Drawing
1904 – 1948
Arshile Gorky, influenced by and among the most renown Surrealist painters, in turn greatly influenced emerging Abstract Expressionism. Working in the studio at his home on Spring Lake Road, Gorky produced some of his last works of art, including ‘Dark Green Painting,’ ‘Red Painting,’ and ‘Last Painting.’ As a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, his works are thought to have been informed by the overwhelming suffering and loss it caused.
- Biography/Description of Work
Gorky, an Armenian whose family immigrated to the United States to escape genocide, was largely self taught. In 1925, he moved to New York City and began classes at Grand Central School of Art, becoming a teacher from 1926 to 1931. His influences included major Modernist artists such as Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque. He was employed as a muralist in the Public Works of Art Project and Works Project Administration from 1933 through 1941, though he completed none in Connecticut. In 1939, Arshile Gorky became a United States citizen, and in 1941 he met Agnes Magruder (whom he called Mougouch) who would become his wife. In the summer of 1941 an exhibition of his paintings was held in San Francisco, and in 1944 he signed a contract with Julien Levy, a well-known art dealer. The following year, the family moved to Roxbury and lived in Surrealist sculptor David Hare’s house for nine months. During this time, their neighbors included Alexander Calder, Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage, and Andre and Rose Masson. After the birth of their second daughter, the Gorky’s moved to Sherman to live with architect Henry Hebbeln and his wife. Hebbeln converted a barn on the property into a studio for Gorky’s use. Between 1946 and 1948, a series of tragedies in Gorky’s life lead to his eventual suicide in 1948. In January of 1946, his studio, along with twenty paintings, were destroyed by a fire, and in March of this same year, Gorky was diagnosed with rectal cancer and underwent surgery. In December 1947, Mougouch and Gorky moved into the house at 21 Spring Lake Road renovated by Hebbeln and then called the Glass House. In June 1948, he sustained a broken neck and fractured collar bone from a car accident, which made painting nearly impossible. On July 21, 1948, a depressed and angry Gorky hung himself in a shed near his house. On a wooden beam in the shed Gorky wrote, “Goodbye, my loveds.” He is buried in North Cemetery in Sherman.
- Sources view
- Uconn database, Bob Gregson, http://www.ridinghouse.co.uk/publications/36/, http://www.gagosian.com/artists/arshile-gorky/, http://arshilegorkyfoundation.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arshile_Gorky, http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?&id=425, http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/600, http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/337.html, http://arshilegorkyfoundation.org/gorkys-life/chronology Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 1948-12-9, Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 1969-12-7, Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 1981-4-24, Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 1994-2-6, Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 2003-11-28, Arshile Gorky Article - New York Times - 2006-11-10, Arshile Gorky Obituary - New York Times - 1948-7-22
- Associated Resource(s)