FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Modern Masters series:

With infomative, enjoyable texts and over 100 illustrations--approximately 48 in full color--this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. The authors are highly respected art historians and critics chosen for their ability to think clearly and write well. Each handsomely designed volume presents a thorough survey of the artist's life and work, as well as statements by the artist, an illustrated chapter on technique, a chronology, lists of exhibitions and public collections, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Every art lover, from the casual museumgoer to the serious student, teacher, critic, or curator, will be eager to collect these Modern Masters. And with such a low price, they can afford to collect them all.

Other Details: 115 or more illustrations, approximately 48 in full color 128 pages 8 1/2 x 8 1/2" Published 1991

style was also indirectly perpetuated through de Kooning's monumental impact on others of the second generation.

Gorky's position as a pivotal figure in art history became apparent only after Abstract Expressionism had been recognized as the first American movement of international importance. Such an assessment based principally on style is accurate, but it represents only one approach to Gorky's art. Any comprehensive account of Gorky and his work must consider many factors rather than depending exclusively on one single element that would distort rather than clarify. A purely stylistic evaluation, for example, ignores the significance of Gorky's Armenian heritage in determining the course of his artistic development. The painter's nephew Karlen Mooradian has provided valuable information about Gorky's early life in Armenia and has presented a persuasive case that this heritage lay at the heart of Gorky's creativity. On the other hand, Harry Rand and a few others have offered thought-provoking iconographical interpretations. Such an approach to Gorky's art is appropriate but problematical, for Gorky left few clues, either visual or written, that enable us to identify the specific meanings of his abstrat images or to trace the transformations from what he observed to what he painted. The process of abstraction seems to have been an intangible interaction of vision, fantasy, memory, and emotion, with no intermediate stages made visible. A rare exception in Drawing (1946), which reveals how some of Gorky's images evolved during the process of abstraction. The cows in the lower half of the picture have been drastically simplified, with their udders, legs, and tails so distorted in shape and size that they are virtually unrecognizable out of context. There is no doubt that Gorky's other images are similarly rooted in nature, but without visual or documentary evidence, specific readings of his images must remain speculative. As for Gorky, he was content to let the viewer see and feel what he or she wished, though he was hopeful that the message conveyed by his paintings would parallel the feelings he had experienced while creating them.

Arshile Gorky's canvases have enduring power, as evidenced by the fact that nearly forty years after his death his pictures speak poignantly to new generations of viewers. But they also beckon those who have seen them many times before to look again and again, and each time something new is revealed.