Arshile Gorky

>Arshile Gorky 2005-05-19T03:03:23Z 64.192.72.117 '''Vostanik Adoyan''', better known as '''Arshile Gorky''' ([[April_15]], [[1904]] - [[July_21]], [[1948]]) was an Armenian/American [[abstract expressionism|abstract expressionist]] painter. Vostanik was born in [[Khorkom]] near [[Van (Turkey)]]. During the Turkish invasion he left Van in [[1915]] and arrived in the [[USA]] in [[1920]]. When Gorky was four, his father emigrated to America to avoid the draft, leaving his son behind. The two were reunited when Gorky came to America at age 16, but they never grew close. At 15, Gorky's mother died of starvation in his arms during the Turkish siege. At age 31, Gorky married. In letters to his sisters Gorky often described moods of melancholy, and expressed loneliness and emptiness, nostalgia for his country; and bitterly and vividly recalled the circumstances of his mother's death. Two years before Gorky's death he underwent a series of catastrophes. His studio barn burned down; he underwent a colostomy for cancer; his neck was broken and his painting arm temporarily paralyzed in a car accident; and his wife of seven years left him, taking their children with her. Gorky ended his life in 1948, at age 44, when he hanged himself. As a survivor of the [[Armenian Genocide]] he was used as an indirect role at [[Atom Egoyan]]'s movie [[Ararat (movie)|Ararat]]. == External link == * [http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/english/06_artists/gorky.htm Peggy Guggenheim Collection] * [http://www.artnet.com/ag/fineartthumbnails.asp?aid=7220 artnet - Arshile Gorky Art Images] {{artist-stub}} [[Category:1904 births|Gorky, Arshile]] [[Category:1948 deaths|Gorky, Arshile]] [[Category:United States painters|Gorky, Arshile]] [[Category:Armenian people|Gorky, Arshile]] [[de:Arshile Gorky]] [[pl:Arshile Gorky]]