Artist of the week. Arshile Gorky

ARTinvestment.RU – 27.01.2010,06:59

Arshile Gorky The aroma of apricots in the fields. 1944
Result: 3,96 million dollars. Sotheby's. 1995
Source: artinfo.com


Arshile Gorky
Khorgo. Ok. 19387
Source: artinfo.com


Arshile Gorky
dark green pattern. Ok. 1948
Result: 3,52 million dollars. Sotheby's. 1994
Source: artinfo.com


Arshile Gorky
painting. 1941-1942. Oil on canvas. 58,6 x 76,2
Estimate: 1-1,5 million
Result: 1,105 million
Christie's. 13.11.2007


Arshile Gorky
No title. Ok. 1943
Paper, pencil, wax crayons
52,1 x 70,5. Estimate: 400-600 thousand dollars
Result: 2.4 million
Sotheby's. 15.05.2008

Creativity Arshila Arshile Gorky (Arshile Gorky) is not the first glance not the most obvious, but very important role in the postwar American avant-garde. Many researchers believe that his monumental painting 1940's, where the sensuous organic shapes pulsate and dissolve in the nebulae of paints, anticipated the abstract expressionism and influenced by artists such as Willem de Kooning (Willem de Kooning) and Mark Rothko (the first Hills was friendly, and the second in 1925 was his student).

real name Gorki - Vostanik Adoyan. He was born, presumably in 1902, in the village of Horgen, located on the territory of Turkish Armenia. In 1915, the future of the artist's family, fleeing the genocide, fled to Yerevan, then belonged to Russia Empire. Five years Vostanik went to the United States. There, as they say, "re-invented himself, inventing a nickname, and expanding his biography a few false facts. In particular, the artist claimed that a cousin of Maxim Gorky. And the wisdom of painting, according to him, he comprehended in Paris, under the leadership of the Wassily Kandinsky . In fact, everything was much more prosaic: Gorki learned to paint, imitating the style of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Leger and Miro. 1920 and 1930 were his "apprenticeship" period, and only in the early 1940's, the artist developed his own style. Great influence on the hill had the Chilean Surrealist Roberto Matta (Roberto Matta), who showed him the importance of improvisation and automaticity.

«Scent of apricots in the fields" (1944) - a typical work Gorki mature period, where performed in the open air sketches of arable instruments, flowers and insects are transformed into one abstract composition. This pulsating colorful body in pools of red and orange to the whole product of extraordinary erotic charge. Now picture, in 1995 sold for 3.96 million dollars on the New York Sotheby's, took second place in the list of the most expensive works of the artist. Those trades, incidentally, were the last on which appeared a masterpiece in its class. "We would like the new record broke the work of comparable quality ... but the masterpieces Hills can boast only a few private collections", - says Tobias Meyer (Tobias Meyer), head of contemporary art auction house. He noted that there were cases when the creation Hills sold privately for amounts in excess of 12 million.

The current auction record for creativity Hills is 4.2 million dollars - a picture is worth so much " Khorgo "(c. 1938), traded on the New York Christie's auction in 2007. Clearly-defined abstract shapes on a white background - the artist's memories of home. "This is a remarkable work of 1930, which anticipates the mature work of Hills", - said Robert Manley (Robert Manley), head of postwar and contemporary art Christie's New York. "If today at the auction has started a masterpiece of the late 1940's, the final price would be far exceeded 10 million. The historical significance Hills is very large, and it should take its rightful place alongside such contemporaries as Jackson Pollock (Jackson Pollock), Clifford Still (Clyfford Still) and Willem de Kooning, compared with whom he really is undervalued ».

According to Robert Mnuhin (Robert Mnuchin), one of the founders of the New York gallery L & M Arts, to make a difference will an exhibition organized by Michael Taylor. "I think that the retrospective will open many eyes [on this artist] - says the dealer, who in the past ten years later sold a few paintings by Gorky, and regularly sells his drawings and early works. - Famous figures of postwar art, without a doubt, looking at him even studied his work. I am surprised by the fact that Hills has not yet included in the number of popular artists and leading art market - probably the fact that his works are rarely exhibited, and rarely on sale. " Explanations to some - in particular, very few surviving paintings, less than 400. In 1946 in his studio in Connecticut, there was a fire which destroyed a large number of works. Many of the surviving canvases of 1940, for which demand is highest, are in the collections of major museums such as the Metropolitan and MoMA in New York and the Art Gallery and the Albright-Knox in Buffalo. The Museum of Philadelphia is kept "dark green pattern," which gave patrons who purchased the work in 1994 at Sotheby's for 3.52 million dollars.

Blades of more modest size, written in 1920 -- x or 1930, of course, are estimated below. Robert Manley said that they could bring several hundred thousand dollars. "Works created before 1943, are valuable primarily for scholars of the artist and the collectors who have other works of Gorki," - says John Hood (John Good), director of New York's Gagosian Gallery, Larry (Larry Gagosian). In the past 15 years Gagosian gave three major exhibition of works of the artist. It is particularly noteworthy exhibition of 1999, the central exhibit of which, dark surrealist composition "Night. Enigma and Nostalgia "(1933-1934), was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for a few million dollars. Stylistically similar work "The impression in Horgome" executed in ink and pencil on paper, presented at a retrospective exhibition. She lent the organizers of the exhibition at the gallery L & M Arts, which ranked it in the 450 thousand dollars.

Since pictures 1940's appear on the market very rarely, been growing interest in works on paper from the same period which unlike the more. Soon the schedule Hills can be seen at the exhibition at London's Gagosian Gallery, which will take place at the same time with a retrospective at the Tate. Four seats in the top ten most expensive products occupy the figures sold in the last four years. Among them sketch for the painting "Engagement" (1947), who went for 2.82 million dollars, and "Composition II» (1943), which brought 2.76 million. Both works were sold at Christie's auction in New York in 2006 and 2005, respectively. According to Tobias Meyer, the drawings are among the finest creations of the artist. "Rarely happens when the pictures go for amounts that are comparable with the prices of paintings" - he adds.

Graphics has been very important for Gorki. This took into account the curator Michael Taylor, who transformed several rooms of the Art Museum of Philadelphia in the room for creativity "(borrowed its name from the artist's studio on Union Square). In the room next to the late paintings exhibited small sketches made in the open air, as well as larger images, including sketches lined the squares on which songs are on a smaller scale, and large pastels.

Fire in the studio was a big blow for Gorki. Later, in 1946 he created the painting "Charred loved I» (now in the collection of David Geffen (David Geffen)), in fact, a requiem lost 27 paintings. Fire and painful work on the painting began, probably, the watershed, from which began the last, tragic period in the life of the artist. In the same 1946 Gorky suffered a serious operation (cancer), and in 1948 he was in a car accident after which he was diagnosed with fracture of the cervical vertebrae and damage to the working hands. Another blow of fate - the news of his wife's betrayal with Roberto Matta, became the essence of the last. July 21, 1948, in the prime of his talent, Arshile Gorky committed suicide.

C investment in terms of investment in the Hills are still attractive despite the fact that the artist is not undervalued . Suffice it has a high potential for quality graphics since 1942. Good specimens are able to go on auction with multiple excess estimate and break the mark in 1,5-2 million dollars. Despite doubts about the curators made at the beginning of the article (to which direction correctly attributed artist's work) in this issue for many years there was a consensus. In all the "textbook" Arshile Gorky mentioned among the key figures of American abstract expressionism. In addition, a number of facts in the biography and career of an artist can talk about his belonging to the orbit of Russian art. This makes his work even more attractive for Russian art collectors and investors.

Material prepared Yulia Maximova, AI

Source: artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru