From A High Place: A Life of Archile Gorky

Author: Matthew Spender

Arshile Gorky (c. 1900-1948) made his way to the U.S. to become a painter in 1920. Having grown up haunted by memories of his alternately idyllic and terrifying childhood—his family fled the genocide in 1915—he changed his name and created a new identity for himself in America. As an artist, Gorky bridged the generation of the surrealists and that of the abstract expressionists and was a very influential figure among the latter. His work was an inspiration to Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, among others. Writer and artist Matthew Spender, married to Gorky’s younger daughter Maro, illuminates this world as he tells the story of Gorky’s life and career in a well-documented account.