The Artist And His Mother

The Artist and His Mother

By Joseph Parish

Of all art related articles and submissions which I have written about so far, I have found this one to be the most trying. I feel the art textbooks simply do not do justice to our modern artists and therefore in this article I have selected a work by Arshile Gorky entitled "The Artist and his Mother".

The artist's life is a trail of tragedy and death, which presents a major topic in many of his art pieces and a tragic life it was. From the burning of his art studio, his bout with cancer, a broken neck, paralysis of his painting arm and finally the departure of his wife and children, the events simply proved too much for him. In 1948 at the young age of 44 Gorky committed suicide by hanging himself in his Connecticut home.

This artist from Connecticut provided an active, inspirational influence upon Abstract Expressionism. In most of his work he has endeavored to display the suffering he had experienced by way of the Armenian genocide. This was particularly true of the painting which we are now discussing. We can see past artist influences here at work as we find various traits reminiscent of Cézanne and Picasso.

In the "Artist and His Mother" the painter attempts to provide a memorable image of his departed mother. This painting was actually based upon not only Gorky's memories, but an old photograph taken years before. Here we see him standing next to his mother. There are two versions of this painting in existence, one being located in Washington DC. We witness a young man standing next to an older lady in front of an empty window. There are no furnishings to be seen in the room. We have to ask ourselves what secrets this painting holds from the painter.

In analyzing this work of art, we first notice that it demonstrates Gorky's tremendous loss which he experienced when his mother died. The lines of the painting are fluid and dull as if they are telling us that they could disappear at any moment in time. The artist's brush has crossed the barrier of life and death as he displays the cold, analogous, low-key colors to record his subdued feelings. His mother’s face appears unnatural and presents a stone like appearance as if she was a statue or represented a headstone. The loose, unstable shape of the lady’s ghost white, flowing dress furthers his proof that his mother is really not physically at his side. The body of his mother as painted upon the canvas presents a vision of flatness in composition, indicating someone who may have died and is no longer part of the earthly plane while the rough, grainy texture gives an uncanny feel that all is not well.

Has he succeeded in conveying his tortured feelings from his homeland and his departed mother? He certainly has. We see Gorky standing next to his mom in his formal clothing as if attending a funeral and carefully extending a pink flower towards his mother. Perhaps this is a flower being presented to her in her coffin either way with her being dead, there is no response seen from her face or body. We can notice the sadness being displayed upon his face as he glances towards his mother. I perceive this sadness as related to his inability to give her the flower he currently holds.

Although the original photograph was taken with a van, the background of the painting is just about indiscernible. He has successfully taken an old black and white photo and transferred it with cubistic planes, color, and a measure of animation, but unfortunately, he has failed to revive his dead mother back into his memories. He has created a brown square window directly behind his mother. This window, however is so opaque that one cannot make out any features within the glass. This is a further indication that his mother's landscape is long gone and never to return again.

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