Study for Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia
1930
Arshile Gorky's 'Study for Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia' is an ink on paper drawing from 1930, exploring themes suggested by its poetic title. The work exemplifies Gorky's early explorations of abstraction and psychological expression.
- Medium
- ink on paper
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
May 16, 2018
More by Arshile Gorky
《索契的花園》
1940
Study for Sochi
Phillips is delighted to offer the following selection of two outstanding works by Arshile Gorky from the Monmouth Museum in New Jersey. A largely self-taught Armenian émigré artist based in New York City, Gorky was a seminal figure in the American movement towards abstraction in the first half of 20th century. His groundbreaking oeuvre ultimately paved the way for Abstract Expressionism, and these two early works exemplify the artist’s insatiable desire to learn from the masters of modern art and to develop his own signature practice.
1928
Artists in conversation
Pablo Picasso
Spanish · b. 1881
Picasso's Surrealist period ink drawings share Gorky's biomorphic abstraction and psychological depth, blending figurative fragments with dreamlike distortion using precise yet expressive line work on paper.
Joan Miró
Spanish · b. 1893
Miró's ink drawings explore the same Surrealist territory of melancholic dreamscapes and automatic mark making, using fluid abstract forms that hover between recognizable figures and pure psychological imagery.
André Masson
French · b. 1896
Masson was a central Surrealist draftsman whose automatic ink drawings on paper share Gorky's quality of nostalgia and psychological enigma, weaving fragmented figurative elements into dense abstract compositions.
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