- Paperback: 620 pages
- Publisher: Pimlico; New edition edition (3 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0712667288
- ISBN-13: 978-0712667289
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,487,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
On 20 July 1948 the Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky hanged himself in a shed in the grounds of his home in Connecticut. His last act, before he kicked away the crate that he was standing on, was to write: "Goodbye my loveds" with a broken piece of chalk. Gorky had been plagued in recent years by colonic cancer and severe injuries from a car accident. He had discovered his wife's infidelity. Despair had overtaken the creative ferocity of this man, whose Abstract Impressionist paintings influenced Rothko, Pollock, and de Kooning. Darkly brooding and passionate, with an assumed identity as the first cousin of Russian writer Maxim Gorky, the legends surrounding Arshile Gorky's life and suicide have threatened to obscure the man himself.
Black Angel: a Life of Arshile Gorky, Nouritza Matossian's impeccably researched, intensely romantic biography of the artist who was called "a Hollywood Rasputin", begins with his roots in Armenia as a survivor of the Turkish genocide of his people in 1915. Gorky's subsequent migration to the United States at the age of 17, and the profound effect his early years had on his brooding, often violent paintings (such as the 1945 work Diary of a Seducer) is examined closely, as is his turbulent life of liaisons, illness and involvement in the brilliant New York art scene of the 1930s and 1940s. Gorky's work embraced aspects of Social Realism and Surrealism but he could never fully be claimed by either movement.
Matossian, herself an Armenian by birth, captures the elusive, haunting spirit of Gorky in this vivid portrait, tirelessly searching for the human being behind the accepted image of the mysterious refugee artist. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"A profoundly moving, illuminating biography...with an almost novelistic intensity." -"Independent
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I couldn't put this book down and had to read it in one go. What a fantastic story from his childhood in the beautiful setting of Lake Van to his phenomenal journey through Armenia to the United States. The Genocide of the Armenians was told with such dignity and absence of bitterness that I could only admire the author for her detachment. What I loved about this book is the degree of empathy the author has not only for the main character, the artist Arshile Gorky, but all of the many hundreds of people who weave their way into his adventurous and tragic life. I felt him all the way through and for the first time understood how it feels to be an artist andhow the early imprints of place and time and background shaped his talent. He came across as a wonderfully attractive and complex man, obviously handsome judging from the fascinating photos. I enjoyed the humour and wit of this strange Armenian who made a niche for himself in AMerica and became a leader of other artists. It is an immigrant story par excellence but with such style and depth that it takes your breath away. I laughed and cried through this book and I learned about Armenia, America in the 20s through the 40s, about the stormy relationships and love s of this genius. It also dealt very sympathetically with the the difficulties of being a wife to a driven artist. Yet his humanity and decency shone through until the end. I loved the way she went into the paitings and showed them from the inside through his feelings and his earliest experiences. I cried buckets during the last chapters when he had his accident but I don't want to give it away so I'll stop. This is a heart-rending and powerful book which is warm, elegant and true. My only criticism is that it ends instead of going on for another 500 pages. Read this book then lend it or buy it for your friends.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A beautifully written, gripping book. You rarely come across such a well researched, fascinating chronicle. The writer sets the artist in context in Armenia during the little-known Turkish Genocide, and later in America from the 20's to the 40's.
It was dense, exciting, each sentence thought out and wonderfully crafted, a pleasure to read. Gorky comes across as a warm, funny, and turbulent genius, an artist through and through.
I am a creative writing teacher and this book saved me from a nervous breakdown. It is inspirational
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Matossian's portrayal of the artistic development and influence of a painter remembered by art history as the link between European Surrealist painters and the Abstract Expressionist movement in America is thoroughly researched. But where her particular talent lies is in her perception that the key to Gorky's work rests in Armenian history.
Armenian herself, Matossian has a deep emotional affinity with her subject. She is the first of his biographers who speaks and reads his language. She exposes deliberate misinformations and breaks new ground. This is a biography so richly researched that every chapter brings a cluster of stories.
Readers will be swept along by a compulsive narrative and charmed to find something so like a love affair between biographer and subject revealed. One is almost unsurprised, turning to the author's photograph, to find that Matossian bears a striking resemblance to the lost mother with whom Gorky felt such a profound connection.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fabulous read
Nouritza Matossian has written a profoundly moving, illuminating biography of the painter she spent 15 years researching. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 1999
Passionate epic of artistic genius Arshile Gorky
This extraordinary book passionately lays bare the tortured soul of one of this century's great artists Arshile Gorky. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 1999
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