ARSHILE GORKY (1904–1948)
Eye Spring, (version one), 1945
Ink on paper
Jean Farley Levy Estate
In his memoirs, Levy confided that Arshile Gorky was the “last of my surrealist discoveries” and “the painter now generally conceded to be the ‘eye-spring’ of Abstract Expressionism.” Gorky, an Armenian with no formal art training, came to America in 1920. He studied art by looking at art work, and by the 1940s, he had developed a style that embraced “pure abstraction.” Little effort was made to represent the subjects themselves; rather, the works depicted abstract shapes and designs, often created through intuitive, improvisational methods—painting gesturally, sometimes dripping or throwing paint onto the canvas.