Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Arshile Gorky Foundation Archives under number D1025.
Arshile Gorky’s Untitled (Virginia Landscape), 1943 was realized in an important time of exploration in the artist’s career. During the 1940s, Gorky and his wife lived in the countryside of Virginia, where the artist would spend long swaths of the day observing the nature that surrounded him. Through the rigorous studying and constant rendering of various elements of his surroundings, Gorky developed his own visual language and alphabet of organic forms, infused with a distinct character and voice: “Gorky dissected root, stem, insect, leaf and flower, studying genesis and progress…” (E. Schwabacher, Arshile Gorky, New York, 1957, p. 96).
A heap of mushrooms, fungi, stems and, perhaps, small animal bones or unknown forms of all sorts of sizes and shapes, are rendered in a lyrical and abstract way in Untitled (Virginia Landscape). The delicate outline configures an enigmatic ongoing process of genesis and destruction with flashes of soft lines of green, blue, yellow and burgundy.
The drawings of Arshile Gorky show an undeniable oneiric character that unveils and transcends the realism of experiencing nature in everyday life. While many his contemporaries drew upon memory and the unconscious in their depiction of nature, Gorky’s biomorphic forms are set apart at this time as they were rendered through the rigorous use of his unique visual language, which was developed through careful observation in his lived experience and exploration.
Arshile Gorky’s Untitled (Virginia Landscape), 1943 was realized in an important time of exploration in the artist’s career. During the 1940s, Gorky and his wife lived in the countryside of Virginia, where the artist would spend long swaths of the day observing the nature that surrounded him. Through the rigorous studying and constant rendering of various elements of his surroundings, Gorky developed his own visual language and alphabet of organic forms, infused with a distinct character and voice: “Gorky dissected root, stem, insect, leaf and flower, studying genesis and progress…” (E. Schwabacher, Arshile Gorky, New York, 1957, p. 96).
A heap of mushrooms, fungi, stems and, perhaps, small animal bones or unknown forms of all sorts of sizes and shapes, are rendered in a lyrical and abstract way in Untitled (Virginia Landscape). The delicate outline configures an enigmatic ongoing process of genesis and destruction with flashes of soft lines of green, blue, yellow and burgundy.
The drawings of Arshile Gorky show an undeniable oneiric character that unveils and transcends the realism of experiencing nature in everyday life. While many his contemporaries drew upon memory and the unconscious in their depiction of nature, Gorky’s biomorphic forms are set apart at this time as they were rendered through the rigorous use of his unique visual language, which was developed through careful observation in his lived experience and exploration.