The Plow and the Song

Born in Turkish Armenia, Arshile Gorky immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and became an influential member of the New York art scene. Profoundly interested in avant-garde European art, he experimented with a variety of styles. Young artists working in New York were particularly stimulated by the European Surrealists, many of whom moved to the city before and during World War II and whose circle Gorky joined. The 1940s, especially the years 1944–47, marked the creation of his most important work, produced in a kind of stream of consciousness or “automatic” manner of painting. The Plow and the Song reflects the artist’s indebtedness to the lyrical Surrealism of Joan Miró, but the sketchy handling of paint, translucent color, and tumbling pile of shapes are hallmarks of Gorky’s mature work. A delicate contour line delineates the biomorphic forms in the center of the composition, in marked contrast to the loose brushwork that describes the background. The Plow and the Song is the title shared by a group of works Gorky produced in the mid-1940s. In what would be his last interview, given in February 1948, Gorky reflected on the landscape of Connecticut, where he and his family had settled one year prior. His remarks touched upon key aspects of the title: You don't recognize beauty when you are looking for it, and you won't find it by looking in a magazine. It's right here in the moon, the stars, the horizon, the snow formations, the first patch of brown earth under the poplar... But what I miss are the songs in the fields... And there are no more plows. I love a plow more than anything else on a farm.