The gallery Tate Modern opened a retrospective exhibition Arshila Hills - the first in Europe over the past twenty years

In British Gallery Tate Modern opened a retrospective exhibition Arshila - the first in Europe over the past twenty years. The exhibition includes more than 120 paintings and works on paper, many of whom had never before been exhibited in the British Isles, as well as some rare sculptures.

Armenian descent Vostanik Adoyan (this is the real name of the artist ) in 1920, fleeing persecution in his homeland, he emigrated with his family in the United States. First in Boston and then in New York, he studied the works of European masters, read art books, visiting museums. Then he took the pseudonym Arshile Gorky, in honor of the writer Maxim Gorky. In the early works of Gorky and the influence of Cezanne, Picasso, but it did not prevent the artist to develop an individual style of writing based on personal impressions and experiences. The exhibition features the work of Hills 1920-30-ies, among which special mention should be two versions of the famous self-portrait "artist with his mother, who served as the basis for a picture with his mother, made in Armenia in 1912. Fabrics came to the exhibition from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

In the 1940's Gorky became acquainted with the Surrealists, who came to America from war-torn Europe. To this period belong such of his works presented at the exhibition as "Waterfall" (1943) from the collection of Tate, "Landscape-Table" (circa 1945) from the Pompidou Center, and three paintings from a series of "Engagement" (1947), originating from assembly Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Whitney Museum.

Life Hills broke July 21, 1948. Unable to bear struck at him a succession of disasters - a fire in the workshop, which destroyed many of his works, car accident, after which paralyzed his right arm, the news of the betrayal of his wife - the artist committed suicide.

Retrospective Arshila Hills has already visited the Art Museum of Philadelphia, the Tate Modern, it will run until May 3, 2010. Then the exposition will move to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, where it can be seen from 6 June to 10 September 2010.

Material prepared Ekaterina Guseva, AI

Source: tate.org.uk , artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru

PS On Arshile Gorky also can read:

Artist of the week. Arshile Gorky