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Library of Congress to Host Vardanants Day Lecture on Arshile Gorky

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  • Library of Congress to Host Vardanants Day Lecture on Arshile Gorky

    Library of Congress to Host Vardanants Day Lecture on Arshile Gorky

    Thursday, August 26th, 2010
    Asbarez



    WASHINGTON (Library of Congress) - The Library of Congress is set to
    host its 15th Annual Vardanants Day lecture in late September with a
    presentation on Arshile Gorky and his contributions to Abstract
    Expressionism by Professor Kim S. Theriault.

    The lecture, titled `The Story Behind the Stamp: Arshile Gorky and the
    Development of Abstract Expressionism,' will be held at 7 p.m. on
    Tuesday, Sept. 28, in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of
    the Library's James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E.,
    Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Near East Section of the African and
    Middle Eastern Division, the event is free and open to the public;
    tickets are not required.

    In 2010, the Armenian American artist Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) was
    one of several influential abstract expressionists honored by the U.S.
    Postal Service with a special stamp. Theriault will discuss Gorky's
    seminal influence on that artistic movement and sign copies of her
    book, `Rethinking Arshile Gorky' (Penn State University Press, 2009).

    Born Vostanik Adoyan on April 15, 1904, the artist known as Arshile
    Gorky was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide that began in 1915.
    Gorky was haunted for the rest of his life by the loss of his
    homeland, the demolished city of Khorkom in the Western Armenian
    countryside, and the impact it had on his family. His paintings, which
    anticipated the movement of abstract expressionism by a decade, were
    thought to reflect the pain and loss of his childhood.

    He emigrated to the United States in February 1920 and lived with his
    sister in Watertown, Mass., where he got his first taste of art at the
    Boston Museum of Fine Art. Mostly self-educated, he took some painting
    lessons in the early 1920s from a woman who told him that an Armenian
    could not be a painter. Thus he created a Russian past for himself,
    and changed his name to Arshile Gorky (Russian for `Achilles' and `the
    bitter one').

    After attending the School of Fine Art and Design in Boston, Gorky
    moved to New York City to attend the National Academy of Design. He
    subsequently taught at the New School of Design in New York and gained
    a small circle of admirers, among them the painter Mark Rothko, who
    studied under him. His big break came in 1930, when he was invited to
    display his work in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art. Since
    then, his paintings and drawing have hung in every major American
    museum, including the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern
    Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
    the Whitney Museum of American Art (which maintains the Gorky Archive)
    and in many institutions worldwide, including the Tate Modern in
    London. The misfortunes that began in his early life brought him to an
    early death by his own hand in 1948.

    Kim S. Theriault is an associate professor of art history, theory and
    criticism at Dominican University in River Forest, Ill. She completed
    her doctorate at the University of Virginia in 2000, with her
    dissertation titled `Re-Placing Arshile Gorky: Exile, Identity and
    Abstraction in Twentieth-Century American Art.' She has given
    presentations throughout the country and published numerous articles
    about Gorky in scholarly journals. In 2009, her book `Rethinking
    Arshile Gorky' was published.

    The Vardanants Day lecture series was created to explore and present
    all aspects of Armenian culture and history. It is named after the
    Armenian holiday that commemorates the battle of Avarayr (May, A.D.
    451), which was waged by Armenian General Vardan Mamikonian and his
    compatriots against invading Persian troops who were attempting to
    re-impose Zoroastrianism on the Christian state. As a religious
    holiday, it also celebrates Armenia's triumph over forces of
    assimilation.

    Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest
    federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination
    and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by
    providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections,
    programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be
    accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive
    exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.




    From: A. Papazian
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