Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction: Drawings from the Rarly 1930s

This exhibition catalogue of thirty-nine drawings, many neither shown nor published before, displays the richness of Arshile Gorky's production as a draftsman over several years crucial to his development. Documenting the emergence of Gorky's unmistakably unique & intensely personal pictorial language, the exhibition examines the complex relationship among these six themes developed in these drawings & their eventual connection to Gorky's 1934 proposed mural project for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). These drawings reveal the evolution of Gorky's highly inventive imagery, offering deep insight into a synthetic creative process that draws from both Renaissance & contemporary sources. The drawings not only mark the origins of Gorky's genius, they also reveal his working methods, demonstrating his systematic rearrangement of self-referential motifs which became major iconographic & thematic sources throughout his working life. Introducing the catalogue are essays by Matthew Spender & Barbara Rose, & individual entries for the drawings are by Melvin P. Lader, Joseph P. Ruzicka, Sarah E. Lawrence & Martin Kline. The venues for the exhibition include The Art Museum, Princeton University, Milwaukee Art Museum, & The Baltimore Museum of Art.Rose, Barbara is the author of 'Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction: Drawings from the Rarly 1930s' with ISBN 9781886055001 and ISBN 1886055009.