This February, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1 will present the newly discovered painting by Arshile Gorky, displayed for the first time in Europe in the artist’s first solo exhibition in Zürich. The newly discovered work, a painting on canvas designated as ‘Untitled (Virginia Summer)’ (1946-47), is a brand-new addition to the artist’s oeuvre. Wrapped atop by ‘The Limit’ (1947), a well-known painting on paper, ‘Untitled (Virginia Summer)’ (1946-47) was attached to the same, original stretcher Gorky used when the painting left his studio in 1947 and is as rich and vibrant as when it was first created.
This exhibition will present both paintings side-by-side as well as a selection of works on paper directly related to the recently discovered composition. Prior to its presentation at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1, ‘Beyond The Limit’ was shown at Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street (16 Nov – 23 Dec 2021).
A major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement that transformed twentieth-century American art, Gorky experienced a phase of particularly explosive creativity in the 1940s, when he began experimenting with new techniques. By mixing oil with turpentine, he was able to paint more fluid lines, achieving greater expressive freedom and ever more spirited compositions.
His breakthroughs are evidenced in the milestone work ‘The Limit,’ where dense surfaces of pigment are dissolved into transparent veils of color, rendering color fields that converge and disappear into one another. The lively shapes in this painting, which, through conservation, were discovered to have been first articulately rendered as a drawing, do not have boundaries; they are instead limitless entities, tied together or floating in and out of an ambiguous spatial field. Balancing Surrealism and Abstraction, ‘The Limit’ vividly channels Gorky’s personal introspection and sensorial delights. used to describe them.