Arshile Gorky, “The Artist and His Mother”

“The Artist and His Mother”, a painting by the Armenian-born artist Arshile Gorky. He worked on it from 1926 to 1936. The painting is based on a photograph taken in Van in 1912, showing little Arshile and his mother, Shushan.

On the left of the painting stands the boy in a long coat; on the right sits his mother in a headscarf and a white apron.

Gorky later became one of the most important figures of American art and is regarded as one of the founders of Abstract Expressionism. His works are shown in the largest museums and galleries of the United States, as well as at the Tate gallery in London. This painting is considered one of his best-known and most moving works.