Born April 15 1904 in Armenia, Gorky fled the Armenian Genocide as a child and arrived in the USA as a teenager. He became a powerful force in the art world, moving from landscapes through cubism to surrealism. Here we see: The Liver is the Cock’s Comb – it’s from the latter of those phases. Nighttime (along with two other paintings in the series; Enigma and Nostalgia) is (are?) perhaps a more famous painting, but loses out here due to the randomness of its title. He also painted two self portraits with his mother from a photograph he brought to the USA; his mother died before they reached America. His biography has Tragedy writ large upon it…
Trivia fact #1: This is not the Gorky of Park fame – that’s Maxim, the writer – although apparently Arshile did occasionally tell people he was Maxim. Make what you will of that. And serendipitously, I downloaded the 1983 film to watch tonight – no connection but a pleasing coincidence.
Trivia fact #2: I also thought that Gorky might by the inspiration for Rabo Karbekian in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel: Bluebeard (and posed that question in am #OTD post last year – hence Again). Turns out he wasn’t but Gorky is at least mentioned in the book. I knew there was something familiar…