The Artist and His Mother

[i]The Artist and His Mother[/i] (1926-1936) represents the pinnacle of Arshile Gorky’s figurative paintings. It is based on a photograph of the painter and his mother, taken in 1912 in his native country Armenia. Only three years later, the Ottoman Empire began the systematic extermination of the Armenian people, known as the Armenian Genocide. Even though Gorky and his family survived a death march, the ordeal caused permanent damage. His mother’s health particularly suffered, and in 1919, she...