Abstract
| Artist | Arshile Gorky (American, , born Van Province, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), c.1904-1948) |
|---|---|
| Title | Abstract |
| Date | 1946 |
| Medium | Graphite and colored wax crayon on paper |
| Dimensions | Image: 19 × 25 in. (48.3 × 63.5 cm) Sheet: 19 × 25 in. (48.3 × 63.5 cm) Framed: 26 1/4 × 32 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (66.7 × 81.9 × 3.2 cm) |
| Credit Line | Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 69.64 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
This image is an abstract composition with shapes and lines rendered in graphite and in green, orange, grey and black pigments.
Arshile Gorky was considered by André Breton, the theorist of French Surrealism, to be the only American artist to have achieved full Surrealist status. While the organic, almost sexualized forms in this drawing probably have their roots in Gorky’s study of Surrealism, the biomorphic shapes also point to the extensive nature studies he conducted in the early 1940s in rural Virginia and Connecticut. Although like the Surrealists, Gorky advocated Automatism—a form of spontaneous drawing, writing, or painting dictated by the subconscious—he drew much of his inspiration from memories of his Armenian childhood and direct observation. This drawing has compositional similarities to his painting Year After Year (1947); however, it is not a preparatory study, but rather a riff on the same theme.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
Request this image
The Eskenazi Museum of Art provides images of its collection, free of charge, upon request.
This artwork is under copyright protection. You can request the image and it will be emailed to you when the request is complete.
Cite this page
"Abstract | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=69.64