Fireplace in Virginia 1946

Arshile Gorky made this drawing, Fireplace in Virginia, on paper with crayon and graphite. It is a riot, isn’t it? Like some kind of proto-diagram exploded into life. I imagine Gorky, maybe he’s sitting in front of a real fireplace, but his mind is elsewhere, his hand scribbling away, trying to catch up. I love how the lines seem to search for form, finding and losing it again. This purple streak—is it energy, memory, or just a mark? And the red scribble, like a little fire burning at the bottom – it's not just depiction; it's feeling made visible. You can see the influence of other painters here, of course – Picasso maybe, or Miro. But it’s all mashed up and made into something new, something deeply personal. That’s what painters do; we steal from each other, and then we make it our own.