Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : Abstraction with a Palette

	Explore the Collections
	5 People who love this also love Biography This Artist/Maker Classification Curatorial

Modern and Contemporary Art

Abstraction with a Palette

c. 1930-31

Arshile Gorky, American (born Armenia), 1904 - 1948

Oil on canvas
48 x 35 15/16 inches (121.9 x 91.3 cm)

* Gallery 172, Modern and Contemporary Art, first floor

1942-64-3

Gift of Bernard Davis, 1942

Label

Stuart Davis, upon his return from a lengthy stay in Europe, met Arshile Gorky in 1929. Even though Gorky was ten years younger than Davis, the two became great friends, perhaps due to their unwavering devotion to modern art. At this time, Davis was particularly dedicated to Pablo Picasso's Cubism; Gorky quickly followed suit, writing in 1931, "Has there been in six centuries better art than Cubism?" With its simplified forms and bold color, this work experiments with the vivid patterns and flattened shapes prevalent in Picasso's Synthetic Cubist paintings such as Three Musicians.

Social Tags [?]

blue [x] composition [x] palette [x]

[Add Your Own Tags]

* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.