Hayden Herrera is the author of Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Mary Frank, and Matisse: A Portrait. She lives in New York City.
"Fascinating story ... It is hard to imagine that Herrera's study will soon be superseded."
For many years after he emigrated to America, surrealist painter Arshile Gorky (1904-48) continued his unsuccessful search for psychic refuge from the horrors of the Armenian genocide that scarred his youth. Much of his adulthood was a conscious fabrication, from concealing his nationality under a vaguely Slavic identity to plagiarized love letters and opinions. At his creative apex, Gorky developed a distinctive style of abstraction, influencing such followers as Willem de Kooning. But though for two decades he was part of the artistic avant-garde, his widespread fame occurred posthumously, after his lonely 1948 suicide by rope. Herrera, author of earlier bios of Frida Kahlo and Henri Matisse, illuminates Gorky's sad trajectory with a detailed and unsettling narrative. An improvement upon recent, less objective attempts to encapsulate this turbulent life by Nouritza Matossian (Black Angel), who was too sympathetic, and Matthew Spender (From a High Place), who is related to the artist by marriage, this is recommended for all libraries.-Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
"Fascinating story ... It is hard to imagine that Herrera's study will soon be superseded."
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
