Nude 1946

Arshile Gorky made this painting, Nude, with oil on canvas sometime around the 1940s. It's an image that looks both planned and accidental. I find the dark pools of layered grey wash especially exciting. They seem to float and drift like thoughts while being pinned down by thin wiry lines that delineate form. These dark washes are like shadows, or maybe the murky depths of the unconscious mind. They remind me of the work of another painter, Philip Guston, especially the soft painterly form at the bottom of the picture which is rendered with the same sensitivity that you see in Guston's hooded figures. There is an ongoing dialogue between artists across time, and it's never a one-way conversation. Gorky's legacy can be seen in many artists who followed him, but he, in turn, was inspired by those who came before.