Arshile Gorky

This is an excellent exhibition which takes the viewer on a journey from Gorky’s early years as an artist struggling to find his own identity and style to his later years of freedom and confidence in an art that was all his own. Though it is large in scope, it is completely manageable in an hour to an hour and a half. Most people are familiar with Gorky as “a seminal figure in the movement toward abstraction that transformed American art after World War II,” but they might not know about his personal and often tragic history. He was born around 1902 and witnessed firsthand the Armenian genocide. In 1915 his family was driven out and his mother died of starvation in 1919. 1920 brought him to Boston to join his father and siblings who had left Armenia in 1908. Little did he know that his father had created a new family in the United States which would devastate Arshile. Gorky ended up changing his name at around this time in honor of Russian writer Maxim Gorky who was an advocate for the Armenian cause. In 1924 Gorky moved to New York City to make a new life for himself as a “modern artist.” He was influenced by peers such as Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger and Joan Miró. It was not until the 1940s, however, that he arrived at his own painting style.

Landscape, 1927-1928, Oil on canvas

When he began as an artist, Cézanne was dominant and Gorky’s early work is a dialogue with the artist about whom he stated, “Cézanne is the greatest artist, shall I say that has lived….modern art has gone ahead widely and developed as it never had a chance to in the hands of the old masters.” Gorky’s landscape of Staten Island from the late 1920s have the same outlines and quick brushstrokes that Cézanne used as well as a palette of orange and brown earth tones.

Woman with a Palette

After mastering Cezanne’s technique Gorky moved on to Cubism creating flattened forms and compressed space. In Woman with a Palette, 1927, Gorky  depicts the female form in exactly the same manner as Picasso. The woman’s body is dense with folds of Greco-Roman drapery. Interestingly enough very few of Gorky’s works from the 1920s still exist so this demonstrates what he was up to at that time.

Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia, 1932-1934, pen and black and brown ink over graphite on paper

Between 1931-1934 Gorky made 80 drawings and 2 paintings called Nighttime, Enigma,and Nostalgia. All of these works were inspired by a de Chirico work called The Fatal Temple which he saw at NYU. De Chirico’s painting is a small work with sections of green sky, a profile of his mother, wood grain, and a diagram of a dissected brain as well as the quintessential architectural elements he is known for. Gorky’s related works are a departure from his earlier experiments with modern master techniques. The two finished paintings ended up nothing like de Chirico’s painting and thus canbe considered two of Gorky’s earliest works in his own unique style.

The Artist and HIs Mother, 1926-1942, Oil on canvas

Like many Armenian genocide survivors Gorky did not discuss his experiences after the horrors he lived through but his paintings speak volumes due to their emotional intensity. My favorite works in the show were two paintings he made based on a photograph of him and his mom from 1912.

Gorky and his mother, photograph

This was the photograph that had been sent in hopes that the two would not be forgotten by the father and siblings in America. After Gorky’s mother died in his arms of starvation, he learned that his father kept the photograph in a drawer as he had created a new life for himself in the US. This became a pivotal point for Gorky. The small side room where these two works hang also includes sketches and preparatory drawings that acted as studies for the larger paintings.

The Artist's Mother

I couldn’t take my eyes off of a charcoal, The Artist’s Mother, from 1926-1936 of his mother. It is crafted with such love and care. Her expression is haunting knowing what ended up happening to her once she was forced out of her home.

Portrait of the Artist and His Mother, 1926/1936, graphite on paper

By observing these works carefully the viewer can see the grid that Gorky used when organizing his compositions. One painting has subtle muted colors of brown, gray, and yellow. The other painting is made of pinks, beiges, and oranges. He began both pieces in 1926 and worked on these for almost his whole life. The hands of the figures in both works were continuously painted out and sanded down; it was almost as if he thought that if he finished the work, he would have to accept that his mother was gone forever. These paintings capture the serenity and beauty of his mother.

Composition, 1933-1936, Oil on canvas

During the depression Gorky supported himself by working as a mural painter for the WPA. It was during this time that Gorky painted Organization. He was inspired by Léger, Mondrian and Picabia, working on the painting for over 3 years he “assimilated these artists’ disparate visions into his own highly original composition.” As he moved away from Cubism, Gorky became more and more interested in Surrealism. He began to create biomorphic shapes like those found in the works of Arp and Miró. One artist explained that Gorky was not an imitator because of a weakness but for him it was a strength which allowed him to develop his own style.

A few drawings on view are portraits of friends and family from the 1930s when Gorky was heavily influenced by the French 19th century artist, Ingres. They are gorgeous and it is obvious from these that he was an incredible draftsman. For many years he could not afford paint so he only made black and white drawings; in 1934 he returned to color.

Mechanics of Flying mural

In the fall of 1937 he made his first sale to a museum, The Whitney bought a Cubist style work called, Painting. Between 1935-37 he worked on ten large scale murals on the theme of aviation for the Newark Airport Administration Building. These were influenced by the work of Fernand Léger which had urban, machine inspired imagery and vivid colors.

Garden in Sochi, 1941, Gouache

In 1942 he spent three weeks of his summer in the country in Connecticut and his work changed once again. A series called “Garden in Sochi” marks his transition to his own style after a “two decade-long self-imposed apprenticeship to a series of modern artists.” In this series the works are brightly colored free floating forms. They memorialize the family’s garden in Armenia. The dominant motif of the series is a large black boot-shaped form that some believe is  a slipper or a butter churner. Either way they reflect his fondness for his childhood growing up in what he considered an idyllic place.

Untitled, Summer, 1944, Oil on canvas

By the fall of 1943 Gorky was happily married with a daughter. During this period he spent a great deal of time on a farm in Virginia owned by his in-laws with his family unit. He had a strong interest in the natural environment and he created improvised drawings in the fields. What began as recognizable imagery (plants, flowers, birds), expanded into an imaginary world when they were made into paintings. In 1945 the Surrealist poet Andre Breton praised Gorky sying that his work, “decoded nature to reveal the very rhythm of life.” this period was a tremendous breakthrough for Gorky’s career. This was the happiest moment of his life and his work reflected that with its vivid colors and swelling forms. During this time he also works with paint thinned by turpentine that becomes almost transluscent. Roberto Matta, his good friend, inspired him to achieve this effect.

One Year the Milkweed, 1944

In One Year the Milkweed from 1944 the paint bleeds together to create magical abstract forms.  He was able to capture the dynamic energy of nature and his paintings capture the spontaneity of his earlier drawings.

The Plow and the Song, 1946, graphite, charcoal, crayon and pastel on paper

I had never seen works from a series called “The Plow and the Song.” The theme of these works is the fertility of the earth. Gorky was sad that technology was advancing and the plow was becoming obsolete. Once again, he associated the plow and the fields with his childhood. His style as an artist is completely modern, but he definitely has immense respect for the past. In these works he is not trying to represent anything but simply intends to convey the mood of what it was like to be in a certain place at a certain time.

Charred Beloved II, 1946, Oil on canvas

In the late 1940s Gorky’s work becomes much darker after a studio fire in 1946 destroyed a number of his paintings and drawings. His palette of black and gray had flashes of orange and red at this time. Later he had an operation for rectal cancer. He battled depression and his anguish and torment is evident in his paintings from this period. In 1948 his wife had an affair with Matta and left him taking his little girl. It was not long after a car accident paralyzed his painting arm that he hung himself.

The Last Painting, 1948, Oil on canvas

Gorky’s art had a profound impact on subsequent generations of artists, especially the Abstract Expressionists. If you can’t make it to Philly before January 1oth, the show will travel to the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Urs Fisher at the New Museum

Urs Fischer at the New Museum, 4th Floor Installation

I have been eagerly awaiting this show along with many others in the art world. It is the first large scale solo show in a United States museum for Fischer. For the first time the New Museum has given over all three of its exhibition floors to one artist. Fischer has created a “series of immersive installations and hallucinating environments.” His past work has included everything from rotting vegetables, houses made of bread, to melting wax and dug up gallery floors.

The imaginary worlds he brings to life blow objects out of proportion in order to make us question scale and perception. He is strongly influenced by both Surrealism and Dadaism and imagination plays a central role in all of his work. This show has been in the works for four years and is not a traditional retrospective since it features iconic as well as newer works. The curator refers to it as an “introspective.” The New Museum bills it as three gigantic still lifes choreographed by the artist that enable the viewer to delve into Fischer’s universe.

Cast aluminum sculpture, 2006-08

On the 4th floor five enormous sculptures cast from small clay works hand-made by the artist balance precariously in the gallery. These massive abstract works which have traces of the artist’s fingerprints blown up to fifty times their original size somewhat resemble cocoons. These works are contrasted with perfect simulations of everyday objects like those found in The Lock, a subway seat with a rotating cake and a duffle bag protruding from the wall above.

The Lock, 2007

Cupadre, 2009

On the 3rd floor Cupadre pairs a croissant dangling from the ceiling by a clear wire with a beautiful butterfly.

Noisette, 2009

Noisette surprises many viewers who walk by only to trigger a tongue rigged to pop out through a hole in the wall.

Untitled, 2009, 3rd Floor

A lavender melting piano and stool remind one of Oldenburg though the wall text references Salvador Dali. Fischer created a “site-specific trompe l’oeil environment” on this floor including making wallpaper out of photos of each square inch of the architecture of the museum. This wallpaper reads as a translucent brownish-purple.

Service a la francaise, 2009, 2nd floor

The 2nd floor, my favorite, is limited to 40 guests at a time. In this gallery 51 chrome steel boxes are covered in silkscreened images of everyday objects in all different proportions and scales.

He includes a Balenciaga shoe, cheese, a deck of cars, a cupcake, a champagne glass, a motorcycle helmet, pear, sausage, cd case, egg carton, egg, ladder, lipstick, metronome, book, British telephone book, and a steak. Weighing 12 tons and culling images from an inventory of 25,000 photos, this is Fischer’s commentary on the information overload we experience in today’s society.

Bill Viola “Bodies of Light” at the New Museum

Bill Viola

I’m not sure what I was expecting Bill Viola to look like but I was a little surprised to walk into the room with my fellow MoMA Junior Associates to find a thin, balding gray haired man with a mustache, beard and glasses standing front and center. Had he not referenced Zen Buddhism several times, I could have figured out his strong interest due to the prayer beads he wears around his wrist and neck. He began describing his thoughts on art in general and then talked about specific works. I have to say I could have listened to him for hours. He is deep and profound. For me it was like being back in college with Professor Carter in Religion/Philosophy 101.

He views art as the ability to get outside yourself by going inside oneself. He stated that the work of an artist is a transformation. During his year and a half in Japan he studied with a Zen Buddhist teacher who taught him to “stop thinking” because when you are empty, that is when you can do something. If you are full, that can’t happen. Half the work an artist creates has to be a gift from an unknown place and half comes from tapping into one’s talent. If an artist thinks a work will be great he/she is doomed.

Pneuma, 1994

A work entitled “Pneuma” is the anchor of the show at James Cohan Gallery. The ancient Greek word for breath, life force, spirit and soul, Viola uses “pneuma” to examine the flow through all living things on earth. He believes in the idea of the sacred in all things, even inanimate objects. The video was created in 1994 and Viola was never happy with the accompanying soundtrack, so he redid it for this show and now all of the other works in the exhibition connect to this central piece. In this work figures find their way through the darkness to get to the other side; they lose themselves in order to find themselves. He shot the work in his neighborhood and also in the desert using a surveillance camera from the 1970s. He often uses this camera for his projects because of the grainy low-resolution image it captures. That grainy quality is intensified when the lights are turned down and the camera strains to capture an image. Viola believes that it is when we strain to see that visions can happen. He feels that the information overload we experience today robs us of the ability to have a revelation.

Small Saints, 2008

His work Small Saints came out of  work he created for the 2007 Venice Biennale which I was lucky enough to see and even wrote about in a previous blog. In Venice, three video screens were placed in a 15th century chapel in the altar niches where paintings once hung. The videos consisted of a “water wall” that people would walk through. The water fell like a sheet of glass so you could see right through it. He used two cameras to shoot this work. As figures come toward the viewer the image is obscure and black and white. The viewer is unaware that water is even there. As figures slowly walk through the water and emerge on the other side, the image shifts to color. The black and white portions are shot with the 1970s camera and the color portions are shot with a camera that costs about $150,000. Viola discussed how he prefers the older camera; it has great sentimental value for him and he loves the quality of the film it produces. The two portions of the work come together to create a world in which the dead transition to the land of the living, but soon realize they can’t stay and have to go back.

The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, that all life is changing and impermanent, plays an important part in the artist’s work. This is a theme that courses through every work I have ever seen by Bill Viola. I have always enjoyed his work but hearing him speak gave his videos a whole new depth and meaning. I look forward to seeing even more of his work in the future.