美國抽象表現主義的先驅：亞美尼亞裔美籍畫家高爾基，他在1920年代末期到生命終了的1948年所創作的抽象繪畫，首先受到的影響是畢卡索立體主義的平面空間，繼之康丁斯基即興系列的表現性，進而超現實主義的心理自動運作與多義的啟發，再加上他自己的繪畫語彙而形成一種既抽象又超現實的形式風格。本文旨在探討，由於個性或生活經驗使然，高爾基的繪畫內容具有強烈的個人自傳性，幾乎不具有社會、文化的關聯性，呈現一種心因性以及內化式的大自然圖像。因為具有具象/抽象、植物/動物器官、大自然/人體等異質融合特性，除了暗示大自然生生不息的繁衍，也喚起人體情色的想像空間。而畫中的自傳性，流露出他與生俱來的悲劇性格、長期的心理衝突以及身分認同上的矛盾，表現在繪畫中，就是形體呈現相互對立甚至攻擊的特點，用色不論鮮豔與否，總是瀰漫一股灰色調性，呼應他心理上之憂鬱與不安定感。

高爾基在第二次世界大戰前後，與流亡到美國的歐洲超現實主義藝術家以及日後成為抽象表現主義藝術家的美國年輕畫家之間有密切來往與互動，扮演承先啟後的角色。本研究亦對其藝術觀及表現手法加以闡述，再連結到現代藝術史的脈絡中，將高爾基的繪畫和兩個藝術流派的異同做比較，可發現其地位介於超現實主義和抽象表現主義之間的過渡人物，通常被歸爲抽象表現主義的啟發者。本文最後以詮釋高爾基的半抽象繪畫特質作結。

關鍵詞：亞希爾‧高爾基、亞美尼亞、立體主義、畢卡索、超現實主義、抽象表現主義、生物變形

Armenian born American artist Arshile Gorky acts as a pioneer of Abstract Expressionist style in America. His abstract paintings from the late 1920s until the end of his life were first deeply influenced by the two-dimensional picture plane of “Picassoid” Cubism, and reminiscent of Kandinsky’s improvisation series, and finally inspired the automatism and biomorphism of Surrealism. Infusing these art styles with his own elements, a hybrid representation was rendered. This study is to examine that due to his personality and life experience, Gorky’s imagery intensely conveys a sense of autobiography. Hardly connecting with social reality, his art is esteemed subjective and psychic. Natural images are internalized into figuration/abstraction and botanical/human-organic patterns. They not only suggest the fertility of nature, but also evoke erotic imagination. Because of the autobiographic quality in his art, his paintings convey his melancholy tendency, psychic conflict, and identical contradiction, rendering opposite and attacking shapes and forms. Thus, no matter how light the colors are, there is always a grayish hue across the picture surface, echoing his melancholy temperament and in a state of unsteady.

During the prewar and postwar years, Gorky interacted closely with the Surrealist exiles in America and the young American painters especially the future Abstract Expressionists. He forms the bridge between these two art movements. This study is also to examine his artistic concept and creative method, involving his position in the history of modern art by comparing his paintings with those of the above two movements. This makes it clear that he is a transitional key figure, regarded as a pioneer of the later. This study ends with the interpretation of Gorky’s semi-abstract paintings.

Key words: Arshile Gorky, Armenia, Cubism, Picasso, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, biomorphism

專論

Bowman, Ruth, Murals without Walls: Arshile Gorky's Aviation Murals Rediscovered, Newark, N.J.: Newark Museum, 1978.

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Shwabacher, Ethel K., Arshile Gorky, New York: published for the Whitney Museum of American Art by Macmillan Company, 1957.

Spender, Matthew, From a High Place: a Life of Arshile Gorky, 1st ed., New York: A.A. Knopf, 1999.

展覽目錄

Ashton, Dore, Michael Auping, Matthew Spender, Fort Worth, [text], Arshile Gorky: the Breakthrough Years, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in association with Rizzoli, 1995.

Lee, Janie C., Melvin P. Lader [text], Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003.

Rosenzweig, Phyllis D. [text], Arshile Gorky: the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979.

Seitz, William Chapin, Arshile Gorky: Paintings, Drawings, Studies, The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, New York: Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Arno Press, 1972.

Spender, Matthew, Barbara Rose, Melvin P. Lader ... [et al.], Arshile Gorky And the Genesis of Abstraction: Drawings from the Early 1930s, New York: Stephen Mazoh & Co.; Seattle: Distributed by the University of Washington Press, 1994.

Spender, Matthew, John Golding ... [et al.] [text], Arshile Gorky 1904-1948, London: Whitechapel, 1990.

Waldman, Diane, Arshile Gorky, 1904-1948: A Retrospective, New York: H.N. Abrams: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1981.

論文

Kahan, Mitchell Douglas, Subjective Currents in American Paintings of the 1930s, Ph. D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1983.

Karp, Diane Rosenberg, Arshile Gorky: the Language of Art, Ph. D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1982.

Loftus, John, Arshile Gorky: A Monograph, Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1952.

Mew, III, Thomas Joseph, The Late Paintings of Arshile Gorky, Ph. D. dissertation, New York University, 1966.

Reiff, Robert F., A Stylistic Analysis of Arshile Gorky's Art from 1943-1948, Ph. D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1961.

Sumner, Wiemer, Anne Marie, Arshile Gorky: the Search for the Complete Self, Ph. D. dissertation, The Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, 1989.

Theriault, Kim Servart, Re-placing Arshile Gorky: Exile, Identity, and Abstraction in Twentieth - century Art, Ph. D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 2000.

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期刊

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王哲雄，〈尼可拉‧德‧史塔耶爾〉，《美育》135期，( 2003年9月)，頁64-68。

王哲雄，〈高爾基〉，《美育》119期，(2001年1月)，頁68-70。