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From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky
An immigrant from a small Armenian village in eastern Turkey, Arshile Gorky (c. 1900-1948) made his way to the U.S. to become a painter in 1920. Having grown up haunted by memories of his alternately idyllic and terrifying childhood―his family fled the Turks' genocide of Armenians in 1915―he changed his name and created a new identity for himself in America. As an artist, Gorky bridged the generation of the surrealists and that of the abstract expressionists and was a very influential figure among the latter. His work was an inspiration to Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, among others. Matthew Spender illuminates this world as he tells the story of Gorky's life and career.
450 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 28, 2014
Andrew Solomon of the NYT enjoyed this book, but with reservations. He felt that ultimately Matthew Spender was not up to the task of portraying the full extent of Gorky's passion and torment; in his words Spender writing of Gorky was like casting Hugh Grant as King Lear. Imagining this gave me a good subsonic laugh that lasted a few days.
But screw that snarky critic and his implied one-dimensional assessment of Gorky. Spender, who happens to be Gorky's posthumous son-in-law, portrayed Gorky's final King Learian six weeks without the myth and bombast that perhaps Mr. Solomon was looking for, but with trememdous empathy and restrained emotion. Upon reading of his final torments and suicide I had to stare misy-eyed out the coffee shop's plate glass window, into a grey misty sky, to collect myself in sad revery.
Gorky's best paintings are the result of analytical emotions - not emotions rationally analyzed by intellect, but emotions with the ability to analyze themselves through the tools of art - so that the final product has a controlled objective quality that only barely contains the raw seething and ever-living emotions embodied within them. This book, to the best of its ability, presents the human matrix behind Gorky's "abstract" works that reveal them to be very human documents of an analytical imagination confronting the world without resorting to the truly abstract functionings of a self-protective rationalism.
Spender's direct and decades-long access to family stories and family memories allowed him to portray a fully human very contradictory and conflicted Gorky in a patient, leisurely way. This book was as if written from the inside out - a portrait of Gorky from the intimacy of the family circle - and in doing so was able to potray the process of getting to the roots (or near them) of Gorky's self-mythologizing and lies that even his wife and children had to undergo after his death.
But screw that snarky critic and his implied one-dimensional assessment of Gorky. Spender, who happens to be Gorky's posthumous son-in-law, portrayed Gorky's final King Learian six weeks without the myth and bombast that perhaps Mr. Solomon was looking for, but with trememdous empathy and restrained emotion. Upon reading of his final torments and suicide I had to stare misy-eyed out the coffee shop's plate glass window, into a grey misty sky, to collect myself in sad revery.
Gorky's best paintings are the result of analytical emotions - not emotions rationally analyzed by intellect, but emotions with the ability to analyze themselves through the tools of art - so that the final product has a controlled objective quality that only barely contains the raw seething and ever-living emotions embodied within them. This book, to the best of its ability, presents the human matrix behind Gorky's "abstract" works that reveal them to be very human documents of an analytical imagination confronting the world without resorting to the truly abstract functionings of a self-protective rationalism.
Spender's direct and decades-long access to family stories and family memories allowed him to portray a fully human very contradictory and conflicted Gorky in a patient, leisurely way. This book was as if written from the inside out - a portrait of Gorky from the intimacy of the family circle - and in doing so was able to potray the process of getting to the roots (or near them) of Gorky's self-mythologizing and lies that even his wife and children had to undergo after his death.
June 15, 2010
This is an excellent and informative biography on one my favorite modern artists, Arshile Gorky. If you have any idea who he is you should read this book. It is extremely well written and gives a great history of his life and passion and how it all turned suddenly into pain.
And don't forget to actually search out his work. His late oil paintings are very lyrical and emotive. He is in many major collections but you may have to look to find him.
And don't forget to actually search out his work. His late oil paintings are very lyrical and emotive. He is in many major collections but you may have to look to find him.
July 7, 2010
Strangely incomplete bio of the great Armenian-American painter. Lot's of good info, but I don't feel the author ever really gets at who Gorky was was. Read this as a companion for the Gorky retrospective that's currently at the MOMA in L.A. Have to admit that reading it did add much to my experience at the show.
February 21, 2010
This was an easy book to read and there seems to be some renewed interest in Gorky with the Tate Modern hosting a retrospective this Spring.
September 24, 2012
This is actually an excellent biography, but Gorky's life was so tortured, I just couldn't finish the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews