1904 Gorky (Vosdanig Manoog Adoian) born in Khorkom Vari Haiyotz Dzor, a village in Ar- menia; father a wheat farmer and trader.
1914 June 15: After massacre of Armenians by the Turks, family moves to city of Erevan.
1920 March 1: Arrives at Ellis Island with his younger sister, Vartoosh. Lives in Boston, Providence and Watertown, Mass. Takes classes at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Technical High School and New School of Design, Boston.
c. 1925 Changes name to "Arshele," and later "Ar- shile" Gorky. Moves to New York City, tak- ing a studio on Sullivan Street. Studies and teaches at Grand Central School, where he stays until 1931.
1929 Begins friendship with Stuart Davis.
1930 April 11-27: Shows 3 still-life paintings in Museum of Modern Art exhibition, 46 Paint- ers and Sculptors under 35 Years of Age.
1932 Invited to join "Abstraction, Création, Art Non-Figuratif" group in Paris.
c. 1933 Begins friendship with Willem de Kooning.
1934 First one-man show at Mellon Galleries, Philadelphia. End of association with Davis.
1935 Joins WPA Federal Art Project: begins a mural, Aviation: Evolution of Forms under Aerodynamic Limitations, for Newark Air- port (present location unknown). First mar- riage, to Marny George; divorced soon after.
1936 First magazine article on Gorky, by Fred- erick Kiesler, ( bibl. 20 ).
1937 First museum purchase: Whitney Museum of American Art, Painting, 1936-37 (shown in Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1938 by Museum of Modern Art).
1938 First one-man show of paintings in New York, at Boyer Galleries.
1939 Murals for the Aviation Building at New York World's Fair (present location un- known).
1941 Course in Camouflage organized at the Grand Central School of Art. Murals for Ben Marden's Riviera, Fort Lee, N. J. The Museum of Modern Art acquires two works by gift. Retrospective exhibition of twenty paintings at the San Francisco Museum of Art. September 15: Second marriage, to Ag- nes Magruder, in Virginia City, Nevada.
1942 Summer: Visit to Saul Schary's home in Con- necticut initiates last period of his art. The Museum of Modern Art acquires Garden in Sochi by cash and exchange.
1943 Summer: First of a series of visits to Crooked Run Farm, Hamilton, Virginia, owned by Agnes Gorky's parents, during which Gorky draws out-of-doors.
1944 Meets André Breton and surrealist artists.
1945 Exhibits at Julien Levy Gallery, New York and shows there annually through 1948.
1946 January: About twenty-seven of his paint- ings destroyed by fire in his studio at Sher- man, Connecticut. February: Operated on for cancer. During the summer and fall about 300 drawings done in Virginia. Represented by 8 paintings and 2 drawings in the exhibi- tion, Fourteen Americans, at the Museum of Modern Art.
1947 Settles permanently in Sherman, Connecti- cut.
1948 June 26: Neck broken and painting arm in- jured in automobile accident. July 21: Com- mits suicide by hanging in Sherman.
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Publication Information: Book Title: Arshile Gorky: Paintings, Drawings, Studies. Contributors: William C. Seitz - author, Julien Levy - author. Publisher: Museum of Modern Art. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1962. Page Number: 51.
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