Arshile Gorky, “The Artist and His Mother,” 1926-36, Whitney Museum
It’s a generous but highly unusual gesture—a
masterpiece-for-a-day loan to the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), on the occasion of the 40th-anniversary celebration of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, New York.
Tomorrow, the
Whitney Museum’s iconic Arshile Gorky painting, “The Artist and
His Mother” (above) will be temporarily inserted into a larger exhibition, Art @ the
Cathedral: Giving Form to Faith, which runs at the cathedral, 630 Second Ave., to June 24.
According to the church’s announcement:
It is especially fitting that “The Artist and His Mother” will be
exhibited at the Eastern Diocese as this year is the 60th anniversary
of Gorky’s death, making the Whitney Museum’s loan particularly
significant to the Armenian-American community….“It is a great honor for the artists who undoubtedly have been
influenced by Gorky to be exhibited side by side with this iconic
painting,” … [Vicky] Hovanessian [curator of the exhibition] added. “The
Armenian-American community holds this painting as a poignant symbol of
Armenian cultural heritage, and the Whitney Museum has enabled us to
display this masterpiece in an Armenian institution.”
I’m really on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand about this: Dispatching one-day loans raises security and conservation issues, as well as questions about the seriousness of purpose for which they are deployed. On the other hand, it imparts a new, living context to the art and an expanded sense of its meaning and power.
Assuming that all due care is taken, I think I lean towards the latter view in this instance.