“integral arrogance”

Funniest thing I’ve read all day. Clement Greenberg writing on Arshile Gorky in 1946:

“Gorky’s art does not yet constitute an eruption into the mainstream of contemporary painting, as I think Jackson Pollock’s does. On occasion he still lapses into dependence on Miró… Yet the chances are, now that he has discovered what he is and is willing to admit it, that Gorky will soon acquire the integral arrogance that his talent entitles him to. When he does acquire that kind of arrogance, it is possible that he will begin to paint pictures so original that they will look ugly at first.”

Unfortunately, we never saw what might have been Gorky’s best work, since he only had 2 years left to live. The end of his Wikipedia bio is poignant enough:

“This peak period of Gorky’s work was cut short. His final years were filled with immense pain and heartbreak. His studio barn burned down, he underwent a colostomy for cancer, his neck was broken and his painting arm temporarily paralyzed in a car accident, and his wife of seven years left him, taking their children with her. Gorky hanged himself in Sherman, Connecticut, in 1948, at the age of 44. He is buried in North Cemetery in Sherman, Connecticut.”

Bad luck dogged him even after death:

“A plane crash in 1962 took 95 lives and 15 of his paintings and drawings.”