Art Museum opens exhibit on Arshile Gorky
Monday, October 19th, 2009
By: Peter Crimmins
pcrimmins@whyy.org
On Wednesday the Philadelphia Museum of Art will open a new exhibit of the work of an early 20th century abstract artist named Arshile Gorky. The large and ambitious show draws works from many collections around the world. It's the kind of show that is expensive to do.
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Arshile Gorky was an important Armenian-American artist whose style was a precursor to Abstract Expressionism. Out of the 178 paintings in this show, only 3 of them came from the Museum's own collection. The rest were hunted down, negotiated, and insured for the galleries. All of which is getting more and more expensive.
The museum's new director Timothy Rub says putting on shows of this scale are increasingly difficult to do – particularly in this economy – but that is part of the mission of the institution.
Rub: The obligation we have is to use resources we can muster for this purpose as wisely as possible. We need to do shows economically, but we also need to choose right ones for this community and do them at the right time.
In contrast, another show this spring on the work of Pablo Picasso will be put together entirely from the museum's existing collection.
Around 6 p.m.on Thursday, October 22 I heard on WHYY-FM Peter Crimmins' report on the Gorky exhibit at the Phila. Museum or Art. There was more to it than what is available here on the WHYY website. I would like to hear (or see) again the part of the report that told of the artist's tragic life, including including the death of his mother in a refugee camp and his own suicide. Thank you for any help you can provide.