Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky, born Vostanik Manoug Adoian in 1904 in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), was a seminal figure in the development of Abstract Expressionism. Fleeing the Armenian Genocide, Gorky emigrated to the United States in 1920, where he would later adopt his pseudonym. His work, characterized by a synthesis of surrealism and abstraction, played a crucial role in bridging European modernism and the burgeoning American avant-garde. Gorky's deeply personal and emotive paintings, such as "The Liver is the Cock's Comb," reflect his traumatic past and complex identity. Despite his significant contributions to modern art, Gorky's life was marked by personal tragedy, culminating in his suicide in 1948. His legacy endures through his influence on contemporaries and subsequent generations of artists.