Arshile Gorky
Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia

ArtistAmerican, born in Khorkom, Van Province, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), c.1904–1948
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia
Date1931
PlaceUnited States
MediumInk on wove paper
Dimensions21 1/2 × 29 5/8 in. (54.6 × 75.2 cm)
Frame (outer): 30 1/8 × 38 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (76.5 × 97.8 × 5.7 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Caroline Wiess Law
Object number2004.17
Not on view

Explore Further

Provenance[Weyhe Gallery, New York]; Paul Kantor, Beverly Hills, California; Stephen Mazoh, New York; private collection, Seattle; [Denese Gallery, New York]; purchased by Caroline Weiss Law, by 2004; bequeathed to MFAH, 2004.
Exhibition History"Surrealist Drawings," Danese, New York, January 8–February 13, 1999.

"Drawing Surrealism, 1915-1945," Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, October 21, 2012–January 6, 2013; Morgan Library and Museum, New York, January 25–May 12, 2013.

"Around Midcentury in the United States," The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Oct. 28, 2020 – July 27, 2021. [Inaugural Installation: Kinder Building 207: No Catalog]


Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Marked in ink recto upper right: "A. Gorky 1931"
Exhibition back label: "DANESE...(GORKI) ... NEW YORK ..."

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia
Arshile Gorky
c. 1933–1934
Oil on canvas mounted onto panel
2005.1157
Untitled
Arshile Gorky
no date
Pen and ink on paper
2000.90
Virginia—Summer
Arshile Gorky
1946
Graphite and crayon on laid paper
92.424
Composition
Arshile Gorky
1937
Enamel on canvas
2004.18
Alfred Thompson Bricher
c. 1899
2021.172.1, .6: Pen and ink on laid paper 2021.172.2, .3, .4, .5: Pen and ink on wove paper
2021.172.1-.6
After Fighting
Mohsen Ahmadvand
2008
Pen and ink, fiber-tip pen and ink, rollerball pen and ink, and red color pencil on wove paper
2018.118
provided
Okay Mountain
2013
Collage of pen and ink, and black fiber-tip marker over graphite on wove paper, on wove paper
2016.41
Persan tenant un cheval (Persian Holding a Horse) [recto]; A man lying on his back, study for Raft of the Medusa and Study of male head in profile [verso]
Théodore Géricault
c. 1817–1822
Pen and brown ink with graphite on beige wove paper [recto]; Graphite on beige wove paper [verso]
2014.753.A,.B
Alfred Thompson Bricher
c. 1899
2021.171.1,.3,.4,.5,.6: Watercolor on wove paper 2021.171.2: Watercolor with pen and ink on wove paper
2021.171.1-.6
Four works by John Constable
John Constable
1833–1835
2022.81-.83: Graphite and watercolor on wove paper 2022.84: Pen and ink on wove paper
2022.81-.84
Langdale Pikes from Windermere
John White Abbott
July 11, 1791
Watercolor and pen and ink with graphite on wove paper on artist’s wove paper mount with wash-line border
2018.234
Overall recto, cropped
Lucas Johnson
2001
Ink and ink wash on wove paper
2023.786