Objects

Objects by Arshile Gorky, executed in 1932, is a pivotal drawing in ink on paper that documents the artist’s intense engagement with European modernism while navigating the dynamic American art scene. This early work predates Gorky’s full embrace of Abstract Expressionism, sitting firmly within his period of synthesizing Cubist structure with emerging Surrealist biomorphism.

The piece, classified as a drawing, showcases Gorky's masterful control over the medium. He employs ink not merely for delineation but for creating mass and depth, utilizing heavy, deliberate lines and varied cross-hatching to define ambiguous forms. Although the work is titled Objects, Gorky renders the subject matter highly abstracted, refusing literal definition. The composition suggests an assemblage of organic, perhaps skeletal or plant-like, shapes interwoven and overlaid, reflecting the early influence of artists like Picasso and Miró, whom Gorky studied intensely during this period.

This American drawing dates precisely to 1932, a critical year where Gorky began to forge his distinct visual language. The structure and energy present in this piece illustrate the foundational graphic abilities that would later underpin his revolutionary large-scale oil canvases. This process of intense preparation means that such drawings often served as preparatory studies, and high-quality prints sometimes exist that expand access to the original concepts developed by Gorky. The artwork is held within the distinguished collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where it serves as an essential reference point for understanding the trajectory of modern abstraction in the early 1930s.