The Painter Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky is considered one of the most influential American painters of Armenian origin of the 20th century. His paintings are shown in all the major galleries of the United States and in the Tate in London.

He was born in 1904 in the village of Khorgom near Van. In 1915, during the Armenian Genocide, he fled with his mother and 3 sisters to Russian Transcaucasia. In 1919 his mother died of hunger in Yerevan, and in 1920 Gorky went to the United States to join his father. He took the name “Arshile Gorky” as a reference to his favourite writer, Maxim Gorky.

His last years were tragic: his studio burned down together with his works, he was found to have cancer, a car accident left him with a broken arm and unable to paint, and his wife left him, taking their child. At the age of 44 Gorky took his own life.

The photograph shows a bearded man resting his cheek on his hand.