What happens when a guy who is an art illiterate goes to an exhibit of a surrealist artist and then gets it in his head to write about it? Sounds like the lead-up to an insipid joke, but it’s real. Read on, and we’ll all find out.
Last week I did my “Armenian duty” and went to the Vosdanig Adoian (Arshile Gorky) exhibit at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Weird. All bubbly/bulbous shapes, with lots of holes showing that allegedly represent things we all know (Webster defines surrealism as “the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations”). Somehow the alleged trees and planes and other common things escaped me. I could recognize portraits though, and those were also bubbly. The one thing I thought I saw, repeatedly in various paintings was a palette (not to be confused with a pallet or palate), which, I suppose, is unsurprising, given that Gorky was a painter and probably had his thumb sticking through one for much of his waking time. That thumb hole in the palette and the repeatedly seen holes in the paintings probably mean something.
But the exhibit isn’t all paintings. There’s a very informative and interesting 20ish-minute biographical video with his wife speaking about him. The descriptions next to some of the paintings are also extremely helpful, historically and descriptively, for those, like me, who are utterly artistically uniformed.
I also learned that artists, at least Gorky, named his paintings after he was done with them. I couldn’t help but reflect on these pieces I write. I almost can’t write one until the title’s gelled in my head.
Of course, I ran into friends and acquaintances. This time, they weren’t all Armenian; I ran into a former co-worker! That was true of the attendees in general. Most seemed not to be Armenians, attesting to the genuine importance of this child of our nation to the art world.
And the exhibit halls were quite full. I can’t speculate as to whether it was because it was the cheapskate night (the museum has received funding and opens for three free hours on Thursday nights) or if that flow of people was constant.
Make sure you go, free or paying, at least those of you living in the LA basin. Only two weeks remain to the exhibit for those who, like me, are avid procrastinators, or have just plain been too busy. Get in there, see it. Take the kids, and everyone else. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Recognize that it’s not easy assembling millions of dollars worth of paintings from individual and institutional collections for such an exhibit. It was certainly interesting. Oh, and buy the exhibit catalog/book—think of the showing-off privileges that provides! And please, if you figure out what the holes in the pictures signify, let me know…
Garen Yegparian
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gorky? so important to america!!!! he introduced abstract art here and mentored jackson pollack and de kooning! as an armenian artist he still does not pale: he easily ranks with ivazovsky or hagopian, minas and even sarian. i saw the show here in philly, oh and i’m a painter who also names his paintings when they are finished, that’s gorky’s influence on us all!
As if Gorky didn’t suffer enough during his lifetime…now you call him a surrealist?!? Poor Gorky is turning over in his grave. Is that how they described him at the exhibit or is that your ignorance peaking through?
To Ara, Yes, de Kooning gave all the credit in the world to Gorky, every chance he had. He said they all came from Gorky. As for the creep Pollack, he despised Gorky and made it known every chance he had. Maybe he was jealous of Gorky’s talent or because his (Pollack’s) lover said Gorky burned with a passion that only Armenians possess. Hum… wonder if she meant his art or….
Arshile Gorky was an outstanding Genius.His Art has become the foundation stone of Abstract Expressionism. A founding father of the newly born Art movement in the USA.
And yes, it is obvious this writer is making fun of what he does not understand.