Soft Night 1947

Arshile Gorky, sometime in the 40’s, probably used oil on canvas to make *Soft Night.* There’s something brooding about these cool blues and grays. You can see how the painting has come into being, shifting and emerging through layering. There’s a trial and error to it, an intuition. I can imagine Gorky, brush in hand, stepping back, squinting, turning the canvas to see something new. The paint isn’t exactly thick, but it isn’t thin either. There’s a density to it, a physicality. See that dark line looping across the top? It’s like a thought, an intention, maybe even a question. When I look at it, I think of Joan Miró. It’s like Gorky is in dialogue with the other painters, asking the same questions and finding his own answers. The artists are in conversation with each other, across time, inspiring one another's creativity.