About This Artwork
Arshile Gorky
American, born Armenia, 1904–1948
The Plough and the Song, 1946
Oil on canvas
134.2 x 155.7 cm (51 7/8 x 61 3/8 in.)
No inscriptions.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Fund, 1963.208
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, “Arshile Gorky: Memorial Exhibition,” January 5–February 18, 1951, cat. 51, as “The Plow and the Song.”
Princeton, New Jersey, The Art Museum, Princeton University, “Arshile Gorky: A Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings,”1952, no. 22.
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, “Arshile Gorky in the Final Years,”1953, no.10, as “The Plough and the Song II.”
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, “Gorky,” December 2– 28, 1957, cat. 25 (ill.), as “The Plow & the Song II.”
London, Arts Council, Tate Gallery, “Arshile Gorky: Paintings and Drawings,”April 2– May 2, 1965, no. 93, as “The Plough and the Song II”
Philadelphia, The Peale Galleries, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, “Paintings and Drawings by Arshile Gorky,” November 9–December 10, 1967, cat. 3, as “The Plough and the Song II.”
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Acquisition Priorities: Aspects of Postwar Painting in America, Including Arshile Gorky: Works 1944 – 1948,” October 15, 1976–January 16, 1977, cat. 3 (ill.), as “The Plow and the Song II.”
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Arshile Gorky1904 - 1948: A Retrospective,” April 24–July 19, 1981, cat. by Diane Waldman, 203 (ill.), as “The Plough and the Song No. 2.”
Nagaoka, Japan, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, "Masterworks of Modern Art from The Art Institute of Chicago," April 20–May 29, 1994, cat. 61; traveled to Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, June 10–July 24, 1994, Yokohama, Yokohama Museum of Art, August 6–September 25, 1994, as “The Plow and the Song.”
Publication History
William C. Seitz, “Arshile Gorky: Paintings, Drawings, Studies”(Museum of Modern Art, 1962), pp. 45–47, 56 (ill.), as “The Plough and the Song.”
“The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1962-63”(Art Institute of Chicago, 1963), p. 15, as “The Plough and the Song #2.”
“The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 4, 1963-1964”(Art Institute of Chicago, 1964), pp. 6, 7 (ill.), as “The Plough and the Song #2.”
Julien Levy, Arshile Gorky, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1966), pp. 21, 31, 36, pl. 183, (ill.), as “The Plow and the Song II.”
Charles C. Cunningham, “Instituto de Art de Chicago”(Editorial Codex, S. A. Madrid, Spain, 1967), p. 80 (color ill.), as “El arado y la cancion II.”
John Maxon, “The Art Institute of Chicago”(Harry N. Abrams, 1970), p. 274 (ill.), as “The Plough and the Song No. 2.”
Robert F. Reiff, “A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky’s Art from 1943 - 1948”, (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1977), p. 357, cat. 79 (ill.), as “The Plow and the Song (wolf version).”
Jim M Jordan and Robert Goldwater, “The Paintings of Arshile Gorky: A Critical Catalogue” (New York and London: New York University Press, 1982), pp. 89–91, 103, 481, cat. 315 (ill.), as “The Plough and the Song II.”
James N. Wood and Katharine C. Lee, “Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago” (1988; 2nd printing, Art Institute of Chicago/New York Graphic Society Books and Little, Brown and Company, 1991), pp. 146 (color ill.), 166.
James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, “Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills Press, 1996), pp. 92 (color ill.), 159, as “The Plow and the Song.”
Nouritza Matossian, “Black Angel: A Life of Arshile Gorky”(London: Chatto & Windus, 1998), p. 425.
“Arshile Gorky: Hommage”(Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2007), p. 92, as “The Plough and the Song II.”
Ownership History
Estate of the artist. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley J. Wolf, Great Neck, New York, by 1962.
Sold, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1963.