The painting that inspired the exhibition, "Woman with a Palette,” oil on canvas, 53½ by 37½ inches, is a pivotal piece in the artist's evolution. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
:When an iconic Arshile Gorky painting whose whereabouts had been unknown for the past 80 years made its way to the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few years ago, the excitement it generated became the inspiration for the first major survey of the artist's work in 30 years. Coupled with an abundance of new scholarship, "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective," now open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, explores the self-taught master's stylistic evolution and positions him as the last great Surrealist.
"Woman with a Palette," believed to have been created in 1927, had not been seen by curators or the public since Gorky's friend Mac Vogel removed it from the artist's Union Square studio some time in the early 1930s.
In an exclusive interview, Vogel's daughter, Louise, recounted the history of the painting.
A large work measuring 53½ by 37½ inches, "Woman with a Palette" had hung for many decades over the mantel in the Vogels' home in Queens, N.Y. Another Gorky, an abstract with apple, and a Willem de Kooning painting of eggs and a potato masher, hung nearby. Vogel is believed to have purchased the three works in an effort to help out the two struggling artists with whom he had once lived.
By the time Vogel died in 1991, the 64-year-old work of art had deteriorated. Someone, perhaps Vogel's wife, removed the painting from the wall, storing it in an unknown corner or closet. The painting was not seen again until early in 2000, when Vogel's daughter, who had lived in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, for many years, made a rare stateside visit home.
Showing the influence of Cubism as early as 1928, the artist painted "Still Life (Composition with Vegetables),” oil on canvas, 28 1/16 by 36 1/16 inches. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin.
She found the family home itself deteriorating and under repair. "Woman with a Palette" surfaced from amid rubble on the kitchen floor, its canvas buckling and a hole in its lower right quadrant. Louise salvaged the work and placed it out of harm's way.
Back in Mexico, she became preoccupied with other things, including the care of her mother, who had moved to the Yucatan capital. But by the time Christmas 2001 rolled around, she was again thinking about the painting.
At a party she met Scott Rothstein, an American on leave from his State Department posting in India. Rothstein took an interest in Vogel's story and began researching the works of art. He focused primarily on the largest of the three, "Woman with a Palette."
Arshile Gorky, a self-taught artist who meticulously worked through concepts with drawings, had presupposed "Woman with a Palette." Art historians and curators had long known the studies but no one had ever seen the finished painting. Experts assumed it had been lost or destroyed in the 1946 studio fire.
Working from India, Rothstein found drawings on the Internet and forwarded them to Vogel, stressing caveats such as "could be" and "gray area." He tracked and fed her information on auction records. When Vogel complained about the high cost of New York City art storage units, Rothstein suggested one in his hometown of Philadelphia. Vogel, who was pressed for time on that visit, recalls that she rented a van and drove the painting to Philadelphia herself. There she was met by a photographer Rothstein had contacted to document the painting's condition.
