The Betrothal II 1947

Arshile Gorky made The Betrothal II with oil on canvas; the date is unknown, but it's probably from the 1940s. There's a golden-brown haze that permeates everything, but the stars of the show are definitely those yellows. Gorky’s paint handling is loose, almost drippy, especially in the background. You can see this particularly near the top of the painting, where the surface looks raw and untouched. The paint feels thin, watery even, allowing those layers of color to blend and bleed into one another. And that central cluster of yellow shapes, outlined in dark ink, creates a gravity well. Looking at Gorky, I'm reminded of Joan Miró, or maybe even Philip Guston. There's this conversation happening across time, these artists riffing off each other, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. It's like they're all speaking this secret language, full of shapes and colors and gestures that somehow communicate the unsayable. And it's up to us to listen.