{"id":1919,"date":"2023-07-21T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1919"},"modified":"2023-07-21T13:09:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T05:09:43","slug":"long-lost-arshile-gorky-portrait-of-artist-anna-walinska-turns-up-in-rhode-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/long-lost-arshile-gorky-portrait-of-artist-anna-walinska-turns-up-in-rhode-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-Lost Arshile Gorky Portrait of Artist Anna Walinska Turns Up in Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rosina Rubin has habitually imagined where\u00a0Arshile Gorky<\/a>\u2019s 1937 portrait of her aunt, artist\u00a0Anna Walinska<\/a>, ended up. Perhaps the canvas wound up in Europe after Walinska begrudgingly sold it in the 1970s. New York, where Walinska was based from the 1930s until her death in 1997, or anywhere on the East Coast seemed even less likely, according to modern art experts who might have a lead, Rubin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like it was somewhere out there in the vast universe\u2014far, far away,\u201d lamented Rubin, founder of Atelier Anna Walinska which documents and promotes exhibitions of the modernist paintings, collages, and drawings created by her aunt. With the hope that someone online might recognize the painting of the artist reading a book, Rubin even made it her profile picture on Instagram. After more than a decade, the search led nowhere, and she lost hope.<\/p>\n

Then in early 2020, Rubin teamed up with the Arshile Gorky Foundation, which was about to launch a digital catalogue raisonn\u00e9 for the Armenian American artist known for creating energetic abstract paintings. At the time, the whereabouts of around 170 Gorky artworks were unknown, and finding the Walinska portrait was a priority, especially because Walinska was also a gallerist who gave Gorky his first New York show in 1935. The foundation made a \u201cHAVE YOU SEEN THIS PAINTING?\u201d ad for the work using a faded slide kept in Walinska\u2019s records, and began circulating the flyer at art fairs, with the hope that new leads would lead to its rediscovery.<\/p>\n

Despite the pandemic bringing art fairs to a screeching halt, Rubin decided to keep momentum going by creating an email newsletter about the portrait, a charming surprise that landed in my inbox during lockdown. I contacted Rubin to learn more about the story of this long-lost Gorky portrait of Walinska, which resulted in an\u00a0article, published by Hyperallergic, that brought renewed interest in Walinska, especially for people previously unfamiliar with the artist, who studied modernism in Paris before returning to New York and creating expressive abstract canvases.<\/p>\n

Still, a month went by, then a year. Two years and nothing. \u201cIt felt like, okay, we\u2019re just not going to find it,\u201d Rubin said in a recent interview. \u201cNobody saw it. Or if somebody saw it, they just don\u2019t want us to know\u2014and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t it. A few months ago, the owner of the painting, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted the Gorky Foundation. The foundation\u2019s director, Parker Field, called Rubin right away. \u201cYou found the painting,\u201d she recalled having guessed when she answered the phone; Field replied, \u201cThe painting found us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Painting<\/div>\n<\/div>
Arshile Gorky,\u00a0Portrait of Anna Walinska<\/em>, ca. 1937.<\/span>PHOTO: CULTURAL PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES. PRIVATE COLLECTION<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ensconced not in Europe but on the East Coast, the portrait belongs to a 94-year-old collector who bought it from a New York gallery in 1986 and now lives in a converted 19th-century knife factory in Rhode Island. The collector\u2019s neighbor read the 2020 article, recognized the portrait, and rushed to tell her.<\/p>\n

Unsure what would happen if she came forward, the collector remained silent for over a year. \u201cI told my accountant: \u2018When I\u2019m gone, call this person up and tell her where the painting is, and tell her it\u2019s at the museum at RISD,\u2019\u201d she said in an interview, noting her plan to bequeath the portrait to the Rhode Island School of Design\u2019s museum. Earlier this year, she decided she had to let Rubin and the Gorky Foundation see the painting. At last, Rubin and Field saw the painting in person in late May.<\/p>\n

The collector had bought the painting without much background information. \u201cI just loved it,\u201d she said about the canvas that Gorky created during a prolific figurative period when he produced portraits of family, friends, models, and himself. After the collector bought a book about Gorky and read up on his relationship with Walinska, the portrait took on different meaning. \u201cShe became more real to me in terms of who she was for him, who she was for herself. How gutsy a woman she was for her time,\u201d she said about how Walinska opened the short-lived, avant-garde Guild Gallery, and fervently pursued painting herself. \u201cI could identify with her. That was a time that we both lived, and I\u2019m still doing exactly what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Walinska didn\u2019t want to do was sell the painting. Most of her walls were lined with her own artwork, but the Gorky proudly hung in her foyer. \u201cWhen [Walinska] talked about Gorky, Gorky was a genius. She loved having that painting,\u201d Rubin said. \u201cIt had pride of place\u2014both physically in her apartment, and in her heart.\u201d But as the Upper West Side increasingly went co-op in the early 1980s, including the building she\u2019d lived in for decades, Walinska needed funds and sold artworks from her collection. Her family lost track of it after that.<\/p>\n

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\"Composite<\/div>\n<\/div>
At left, the reverse of Gorky\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Anna Walinska<\/em>\u00a0(ca. 1937), and at right the painting\u2019s right tacking edge, with \u201cWALINSKA\u201d inscribed on it.<\/span>FROM LEFT: PHOTO CULTURAL PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES; PHOTO PARKER FIELD. BOTH: PRIVATE COLLECTION (2)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The artist\u2019s family did hold onto the one other Gorky portrait of Walinska, though\u2014a pencil drawing on the back of a menu from the Lower East Side\u2019s Russian Art Restaurant. It was exhibited this year for the first time at New York\u2019s Graham Shay 1857 gallery as part of a Walinska solo exhibition titled \u201cCalligraphy of Line: The Drawings of Anna Walinska<\/a>,\u201d installed alongside Walinska\u2019s drawing of Gorky as a pendant.<\/p>\n

This drawn portrait of Walinska was also published for the first time with the launch of the digital Gorky catalogue raisonn\u00e9 in November 2021. In the less than two years since its release, the catalogue has helped over 40 works by the artist resurface\u2014a mix of ones listed as \u201cwhereabouts unknown\u201d at the time of publication and some entirely new to the foundation. The painted Walinska portrait is a highlight among other exciting rediscoveries, such as an ink and graphite drawing titled\u00a0Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia\u00a0<\/em>(1931) that was only known from an early photograph of Gorky in his studio.<\/p>\n

\n
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\n
\"Two<\/div>\n<\/div>
Anna Walinska\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Arshile Gorky<\/em>\u00a0(1936) and Arshile Gorky\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Anna Walinska<\/em>\u00a0(ca. 1935), were exhibited in \u201cCalligraphy of Line: The Drawings of Anna Walinska (1906\u20131977),\u201d 2023, at Graham Shay 1857, New York.<\/span>PHOTO PARKER FIELD<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Field believes that digital catalogues raisonn\u00e9 help works resurface more easily, a reason the foundation opted for it over print one. \u201cWe expected an increase in correspondence post-publication through what we knew from the experiences of other online catalogues raisonn\u00e9,\u201d Field said. \u201cAnd more logically, if you\u2019re doing an online catalogue raisonn\u00e9 you have more readers, more viewers, than you do with a print catalogue. If you have more readers, then you have more attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

That still leaves, however, at least 141 Gorky paintings unaccounted for, including another one of a fellow artist,\u00a0Portrait of George Yphantis\u00a0<\/em>(1926\u201327), of the Turkish-born painter and friend of Gorky\u2019s who later taught in the fine art department of Montana State University. Painted after a visit to the Boston area, Gorky gifted it directly to Yphantis; it hasn\u2019t been exhibited or heard of since. A rediscovery such as this one will fill in gaps in Gorky\u2019s oeuvre and add to a fuller understanding of his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of its wider accessibility, a digital catalogue raisonn\u00e9 can raise public awareness about missing artworks and encourage individuals to come forward with relevant information,\u201d said Alexandra Kaiser, managing director of the Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9 Scholars Association and research curator of the Archipenko Foundation. \u201cWhile digital catalogues raisonn\u00e9s offer powerful tools, finding missing artworks can still be a complex and challenging task. It often requires diligent research, collaboration, and a bit of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rosina Rubin has habitually imagined where\u00a0Arshile Gorky\u2019s 1937 portrait of her aunt, artist\u00a0Anna Walinska, ended up. Perhaps the canvas wound up in Europe after Walinska begrudgingly sold it in the 1970s. New York, where Walinska was based from the 1930s until her death in 1997, or anywhere on the East Coast seemed even less likely, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nLong-Lost Arshile Gorky Portrait of Artist Anna Walinska Turns Up in Rhode Island - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rosina Rubin has habitually imagined where\u00a0Arshile Gorky\u2019s 1937 portrait of her aunt, artist\u00a0Anna Walinska, ended up.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/long-lost-arshile-gorky-portrait-of-artist-anna-walinska-turns-up-in-rhode-island\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long-Lost Arshile Gorky Portrait of Artist Anna Walinska Turns Up in Rhode Island - 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