New York Review of Books
Brings us closer to to Gorky's origins and the sources of his art.
The New York Times
Matossian has a knack for describing the formal and the physical aspects of a painting or drawing.
Times (London) Literary Supplement
Matossian's reconstruction of the New York art...is as informative as the picture she paints of Gorky's corner of Armenia.
Atom Egoyan
This stunning work is emotionally charged and achieves a rare alchemy of scholarship, personal reflection, and historical testimony.
Book Description
In this first full-scale biography of the artist Robert Hughes called "a kind of Bridge of Sighs between Surrealism and America," Nouritza Matossian charts the life of Arshile Gorky, one of the most mysterious of major twentieth-century artists. Born in Armenia, he survived the Turkish genocide begun in 1915 and arrived in America in 1920. One of the first abstract expressionists, he was a major influence on the New York art scene, which included de Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, and others. After a devastating series of illnesses, injuries, and personal setbacks, he committed suicide at the age of 46.
In Black Angel, Nouritza Matossian uses for the first time Gorky's original letters in Armenian and other new source material, writing with authority and insight about the powerful influence Gorky's Armenian heritage had upon his painting. She also provides an informed and important critique of the entire body of Gorky's major work.
Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky FROM THE PUBLISHER
Here is a highly acclaimed biography of visionary artist Arshile Gorky—pioneer of the abstract expressionist movement.
In this first full-scale biography of the artist Robert Hughes called "a kind of Bridge of Sighs between Surrealism and America," Nouritza Matossian charts Arshile Gorky's tumultuous life from his childhood to his evolution into a key figure on the New York art scene of the 20s, 30s, 40s to his last, tragic years. Gorky is one of the most mysterious of major twentieth-century artists. Born in Armenia, he survived the Turkish genocide begun in 1915 and arrived in America in 1920. One of the first abstract expressionists, he was a major influence on de Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, and others. After a devastating series of illnesses, injuries, and personal setbacks, he committed suicide at the age of 46.
In "Black Angel" Nouritza Mattosian uses for the first time Gorky's original letters in Armenian and other new source material, writing with authority and insight about the powerful influence Gorky's Armenian heritage had upon his painting. She also provides an informed and important critique of the entire body of Gorky's major work, including The Liver is the Cock's Comb, the two Charred Beloveds, Diary of a Seducer, How My Mother's Embroidered Apron Unfolds in Life, and the final Agony.
About the AuthorNouritza Matossian is a biographer and music critic. She is the author of an acclaimed biography of composer Iannis Xenakis and a contributor on music and the arts to The Independent, The Economist, and The Observer.
FROM THE CRITICS
Atom Egoyan
This stunning work is emotionally charged and achieves a rare alchemy of scholarship,personal reflection,and historical testimony.
Arthur Danto - Times Literary Supplement
Matossian's reconstruction of the New York art world of Gorky's time is as informative as the picture she paints of Gorky's corner of Armenia before the First World War.
Roberta Smith - The New York Times
Matossian has a knack for describing the formal and the physical aspects of a painting or drawing,the way shapes build and surfaces accrue,which befits an artist technically obsessed yet as improvisational as Gorky.
New York Review of Books
Brings us closer to to Gorky's origins and the sources of his art.
Publishers Weekly
An admired outsider among the New York school of painters in the 1940s, Gorky (1902-1948) has long been a cipher as a person, in part due to his constant self-disguises. Born Manoug Adoian in Armenia, he survived the horrific 1915 massacre of Armenians by Turks, as well as subsequent famines, only to disguise his past once he reached America in the 1920s. Presenting himself as a cousin of the writer Maxim Gorky, he convinced friends he was Russian, despite his ignorance of that language. Now arts journalist Matossian (Iannis Xenakis) clears up a good part of the mystery, armed with a reading knowledge of Armenian that past writers have often lacked. Matossian proves that past sources on Gorky's life, such as letters published by a nephew, were forgeries. She probes deeply and without sentiment into the tragic life, which included a devastating studio fire, a colostomy after rectal cancer was diagnosed, followed by a broken neck in a car accident. These mishaps, along with his wife absconding with the "`bright and glib'" surrealist painter Matta, may have compelled Gorky to hang himself at age 46. At times, Gorky seems like an outsized fictional Armenian such as novelist William Saroyan might have created on his darkest day. Still, Matossian reveals lighter moments: in one, the artist-as-suitor pays clumsy compliments to one woman by exclaiming, "Oh, what charming little wrinkles you have around your eyes." Little space is devoted to describing the art, but by bringing us closer to Gorky the man, this book makes his life's tragedies all the more immediate and appalling. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
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