In his later work, Gorky would depart from such rigidly arranged compositions in favor of a more spontaneous painting technique, yet he would always remain attentive to the structure of his paintings. This painting the first of at least six relating to this theme represents Gorky's nostalgic reflection upon the garden that was part of his father's farm near Lake Van in his native Armenia. A defining influence of Joan Miro's work can be discerned in this painting in terms of its palette, composition, and forms, with Gorky's skill as a draftsman evident in the separation of line and color.
But more specifically, in a unpublished typescript that Gorky provided for the Museum of Modern Art, the artist described the garden and its objects including carrots and porcupines , as well as its depicted motifs, including women rubbing their breasts on rocks to see their wishes fulfilled, and the "Holy Tree" with torn bits of clothing from persons visiting the tree.
In the same document, Gorky also described the "sh-h-h-sh-h of silver leaves of the poplars. The word is also then a pun on the Russian resort Sochi, which was probably an intentional association in the same way that the artist chose the name Gorky. Ethel Schwabacher has also identified the centrally located image of an elegant shoe that Gorky's father supposedly gave him before he left Armenia.
However, the viewer who insists upon too specific a reading of Gorky's images will not be fully rewarded, as the higher pleasure is in allowing his titles to suggest a subject matter, and then enabling our own memories and associations to mingle with what is on the canvas.
In this sense, his works allow the viewer to revel in the lyrical play of color, following the rhythm of the curving forms as they help us pry open the memories of our own experiences that we realize are common to all humanity.
Though abstract to a great degree, this work nevertheless reveals Gorky's fondness for organic forms loosely based in nature and the sumptuous colors that would prove to be essential to his mature style.
The work of Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky, as well as that of Joan Miro and Roberto Matta who in suggested that Gorky use more turpentine to loosen up the paint provided strong influences on Gorky's painting practice. In , Andre Breton, the author of the Surrealist Manifesto, praised this painting for its combination of nature and reality, filtered through memory and feeling.
The scholar Harry Rand has discussed the content of this picture at length, pointing out the rooster-headed figure with the feathered groin at the right as the vain fool. Rand explains that the liver was once thought of as the seat of the passions love and lust , thus punning on the "cock's comb" part of the title, and could also be construed as "one who lives," therefore asserting that life itself is vanity and all in vain.
A studio fire, cancer operation, and emotional turmoil help explain the title of this painting executed one year before Gorky's death. Scholars helped, as in other cases, by the study of Gorky's drawings have suggested the presence of images including figures - perhaps at the left the pained and suspended figure of Gorky himself - in a structured interior.
As with Gorky's other paintings, instead of an exact rendering, the viewer is presented with suggestions of real objects that are subjected to the artist's personal interpretation of their forms and meanings. However, the sober palette and the incisive pulling of the lines and forms in this painting inevitably lead us back to the title of the work and feelings of suffering, pain, and sorrow, yet all within the context of the cycle of life and death expressed in the malleability of Gorky's forms.
Content compiled and written by The Art Story Contributors. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. The Art Story. Ways to support us. Movements and Styles: Expressionism. Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an explosion into unknown areas. Dreams form the bristles of the artist's brush.
As the eye functions as the brain's sentry, I communicate my innermost perceptions through the art, my worldview. My art is therefore a growth art where forms, pines, shapes, memories of Armenia germinate, breathe, expand and contract, multiply and thereby create new paths for exploration. Art must be serious, no sarcasm, comedy. Last on. Mon 12 Mar BBC Four. More episodes Previous. The Reluctant Revolutionary. Related Content Similar programmes By genre: Factual.
By format: Documentaries Films. We are very happy. A lot of tension in the house. My sister Natasha doesn't remember anything. I thought he'd died. Or 13? Matthew was invaluable.
We'd go in the spring. It's wonderful. It's extraordinary. Let it happen to you. Because, you see He'd found his way out of the drawings. So nobody came. It was tough on him. It was tough on the children. She was born She was a very easy, healthy baby. I just didn't feel connected to Mummy. You know. I sort of wanted to disappear. Not at all. Like that, on top of it. Not five. He wouldn't let himself have anything that He starved himself.
We moved in wintertime. We moved to Sherman. He was tired. He didn't like the studio. He had his site all chosen. What can I paint? You haven't painted a portrait for years. Everything was wrong. I was wrong. I broke. It was only a weekend. I said I'd be back on Sunday night and I was.
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