The ‘Armenianess’ of Arshile Gorky: Bridging the Gaps

Zari Apodaca ’23 Major: Studio Art Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Welch, Art and Art History Zari Apodaca produced an outstanding art history thesis that an outside reviewer describes as excellently “combining formal analysis, historical context, and historiography in crafting [an] argument around the ‘Armenianess’ in [Arshile] Gorky’s work, but also in [the artist’s] own lived identity.” Her passionate and incisive interpretations are coupled with empathy for what she identifies, following Maurice Eisenbruch, as Gorky’s cultural bereavement. She adroitly connects the “push-pull” of the artist’s painting technique to the “here-there” of Armenia and the United States, bridging a gap she identifies in art history’s understanding of Gorky