Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction Drawings From the Early 1930s & Postcard Signed by Martin Kline to Dr. Curtis Carter

Details

Description

Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction Drawings From the Early 1930s & Postcard Signed by Martin Kline to Dr. … Read more Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction Drawings From the Early 1930s & Postcard Signed by Martin Kline to Dr. Curtis Carter

Measurements are 9.25”W x 11.65” H x .5” D.

Martin Kline wrote the following foreword (and organized the catalogue):
This exhibition and accompanying catalogue includes thirty-nine drawings, many neither shown nor published before, that display the richness of Arshile Gorky's production as a draftsman over several years crucial to his development. The show offers a rare look at a singularly creative moment for Gorky. With pen and ink, pencil and paper as the primary vehicles of expression, he explores and develops a broad abstract visual vocabulary. Documenting the emergence of Gorky's unmistakably unique and intensely personal pictorial language, the exhibition examines the complex relationship among six themes developed in these drawings and their eventual connection to Gorky's 1934 proposed mural project for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). These six themes reveal the evolution of Gorky's highly inventive imagery, offering deep insight into a synthetic creative process that draws from both Renaissance and contemporary sources. These drawings not only mark the origins of Gorky's genius, they also reveal his working methods, demonstrating the systematic rearrangement of self-referential motifs that became major iconographic and thematic sources throughout his working life.
Introducing the catalogue are essays by Matthew Spender and Barbara Rose,
both focusing on works in the exhibition directly related to the mural design
"1934" (cats. 1-32 and 39). Indirectly related through imagery, the Khorkom series (cats. 33-38) is included to demonstrate how formative motifs were developed by Gorky in the early 1930s and remained essential elements in his later work.
Martin Kline is a contemporary American painter and sculptor whose work frequently dialogues with the history of American abstraction.
Arshile Gorky was a foundational 20th-century painter who bridged European Surrealism and American Abstract Expressionism. The two figures are most strongly connected through a specific art historical project: The 1994 Exhibition: Martin Kline collaborated with art historian Barbara Rose to mount an exhibition of early drawings by Arshile Gorky. The exhibition, titled Arshile Gorky and the Genesis of Abstraction: Drawings from the Early 1930s, traveled to the Princeton University Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and The Baltimore Museum of Art. The Catalogue: Kline contributed essays and helped prepare the accompanying publication, providing deep scholarly analysis of Gorky's development as a draughtsman during his formative years.

Provenance: I purchased this catalogue from the personal collection of Dr. Curtis L. Carter.
Dr. Curtis L. Carter is a professor of Philosophy at Marquette University, focusing on aesthetics. He received a PhD from the University of Boston. His greatest accomplishment at Marquette was the creation of the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art. Carter was the founding director from 1984-2007. Haggerty Museum attempts to build a greater appreciation for the arts in the Milwaukee and Marquette Community. He also teaches several classes on the philosophy of art.
Carter also serves as an associate professor at Marquette University's Les Aspin Center in Washington DC. At the Aspin Center, Carter teaches a class titled "Arts in a Democratic Society", through which he attempts to integrate the importance of the arts in a Democratic society. The class consists of tours of art museums, historical landmarks and buildings in the DC area, visits to performances at the Kennedy Center. Carter currently serves as vice president of the International Association for Aesthetics. Carter has recently expanded his teaching to China.

This catalogue was produced by Stephen Mazoh & Co., Inc.
Martin Kline, project director.
Sheila Schwartz, editor.
Printed, typeset and bound by The Stinehour Press.
Donald Crane, production supervisor.
Jerry Kelly, book design.

Arshile Gorky
and the Genesis of Abstraction:
Drawings from the Early 1930s
MATTHEW SPENDER / BARBARA ROSE
with Melvin P. Lader, Joseph P. Ruzicka, Martin Kline, and Sarah E. Lawrence
The Art Museum, Princeton University
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Baltimore Museum of Art
STEPHEN MAZOH & CO., INC., NEW YORK, 1994
Distributed by the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London

Published by Stephen Mazoh & Co., Inc., New York, 1994
Distributed by the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London Copyright © 1994 Stephen Mazoh & Co., Inc.
ISBN 1-886055-00-9
Library of Congress Card Catalogue Card Number 94-078407 See less