Black Angel

Arshile Gorky is one of the most mysterious yet influential of great twentieth-century artists. Born Armenian, he adopted the cover of a famous Russian name, and paradoxically helped to change the course of American art. He was called the Picasso of Union Square, a Hollywood Rasputin, a magical storyteller, a victim, a tragic hero - and his legendary suicide left many unanswered questions. This powerfully revealing biography sheds new light on a charismatic, controversial genius and on the history of modern art. The key to understanding his work is the true story of his tumultuous, tragic life, told here for the first time. He lived though a world war, famine and the horrors of genocide before emigrating to America. Nouritza Matossian, herself of Armenian origin, has returned to Gorky's roots in Van, travelled in his footsteps, and talked to his widow and family to re-create those traumatic, early years. And sifting through published and unpublished letters, she has made startling discoveries which explain how his life and work came to be falsified, mythologized and misinterpreted. Matossian brilliantly integrates his personal and artistic biography, vividly conjuring up not only his background and life but also the American art scene between the wars and his influence upon it. An important contribution to art history, this is a vibrant and controversial biography of a charismatic genius who hanged himself, aged44, at the peak of his career.