James Rosenquist American, 1933–2017

Arshile Gorky is widely regarded as the last of the great Surrealist painters—and one of the first Abstract Expressionists. His explosive, improvisational compositions are characterized by energetic brushwork, thinly painted color, Cubist-style fractured perspectives, and loose suggestions of organic forms. Gorky often drew from his childhood memories and direct observations of nature. An Armenian emigré living in New York (he fled Europe in the wake of the Armenian Genocide), the artist was largely self-taught and drew inspiration from the work of modernists such as Paul Cézanne, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso. His friendships with André Breton and Roberto Matta sparked an interest in automatic drawing and biomorphic imagery. Gorky’s work has been exhibited at the world’s most prestigious institutions and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Centre Pompidou, and the Tate, among many others. In 2018, his auction record ascended to eight figures.