Summation
Arshile Gorky
American, born Van Province, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). c. 1904–1948
1947
A monumental drawing in pencil, pastel, and charcoal on buff paper mounted on board in which Arshile Gorky condenses dreamlike, biomorphic motifs into a single, elegiac composition.
You first notice a warm, worn ground filled with faint, whispering outlines—spidery graphite, soft charcoal smudges and tiny pastel accents that float like fragments of plants and figures across a vast, airy surface, as if reading a half-remembered dream.
Made near the end of his life, Summation exemplifies Gorky’s synthesis of Surrealist automatism and lyrical abstraction and helped point the way toward the emotionally charged, biomorphic language of American Abstract Expressionism.
Medium
Pencil, pastel, and charcoal on buff paper mounted on board
Dimensions
6' 7 5/8" x 8' 5 3/4" (202.1 x 258.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Fund
Accession
234.1969
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
