Arshile Gorky

Description

Harry Rand, in this reissue of his critically acclaimed study originally published in 1980, recounts Gorky's brief and troubled life and traces his artistic development from the early murals and other works painted during the Depression to his mature works of the 1940s and his death in 1948. All Gorky's major themes are touched on and his major paintings dealt with in some depth, with attention to the details of the individual works and frequently to the drawings and preliminary studies from which the paintings evolved. The descussion centers on the images that united the pieces as they develop from work to work. Harry Rand explores their meaning for Gorky, as well as possible sources and their relationship to the body of Gorky's art. A concluding chapter reassesses Gorky's impact on the New York School in light of a new understanding of his aims and methods.