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| Posted: May-28-2010 at 2:55am | IP Logged
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ARSHILE GORKY: A RETROSPECTIVE
EXHIBIT DATES: 06.06.10 - 09.20.10
MOCA GRAND AVENUE
250 SOUTH GRAND AVENUE
LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
ABOUT THIS EXHIBIT
Arshile Gorky (b. c.1902, Khorkom, Armenia; d. 1948 Sherman, Conn.) was a seminal figure in the
movement toward abstraction that transformed American art in the middle of the 20th century.
Born in an Armenian village on the eastern border of Ottoman Turkey, Gorky was a first-hand
witness to the Turkish government's Armenian Genocide of 1915, which led the artist’s family and
thousands of others to flee. In 1920, Gorky emigrated to the United States and eventually
settled in New York, where he became a largely self-taught artist. At a time when the American
avant-garde privileged originality over traditional working methods, Gorky was a nonconformist
who developed his personal vocabulary through a series of intensive apprenticeships to the
styles of other artists, including Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, and Joan Miro,
before developing his own unique and deeply influential visual language in the early 1940s.
Gorky’s prominence in the New York art scene led him to befriend Andre Breton and Roberto Matta—
fellow emigres and key figures in the surrealist group—who came to have an enormous impact on
Gorky’s mature style.
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective positions Gorky as a crucial founder of abstract expressionism,
but also as a passionate and dedicated artist whose tragic life often informed his
groundbreaking and deeply personal paintings. The first full-scale survey of Gorky’s work since
1981, this timely exhibition features Gorky’s most significant paintings, sculptures, and works
on paper, including two masterworks from MOCA’s permanent collection—Study for The Liver is the
c*ck's Comb (1943) and Betrothal I (1947).
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is organized by Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman
Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the exhibition was on view
October 21, 2009, through January 10, 2010, before traveling to Tate Modern, London, February 10
through May 3, 2010. MOCA’s presentation, the third on the exhibition’s tour, is organized by
MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel. Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is accompanied by a fully
illustrated catalogue that includes new essays by Harry Cooper, Jody Patterson, Robert Storr,
and Kim Theriault
Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association
with Tate Modern, London, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
The international tour is made possible by the Terra Foundation for American Art. The U.S. tour
is supported by The Lincy Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and by an
indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The exhibition at MOCA is presented by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Generous support is
provided by Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg, Steve Martin, The MOCA Contemporaries, and the
Pasadena Art Alliance. Additional support is provided by the MOCA Friends of Arshile Gorky: Kip
and Mary Ann Hagopian in honor of Charles E. Young, Mrs. Joseph H. Stein, Jr., and Mrs. Louise
Danelian.
In-kind media support is provided by Ovation, Asbarez Daily Newspaper/Horizon Armenian TV,
YEREVAN Magazine, and Los Angeles magazine.
MUSEUM HOURS
MON..............11am–5pm
TUES, WED........CLOSED
THURS............11am–8pm
FRI..............11am–5pm
SAT, SUN.........11am–6pm
Free Thursday Evenings:
Admission to MOCA Grand Avenue is free every Thursday, 5–8pm, courtesy of Wells Fargo.
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Topic: Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective (MOCA)
