ARSHILE GORKY IN LAS VEGAS

by Arne Weingart

 

You painted Las Vegas before it ever existed.
I bet you never thought anyone would take
abstract expressionism so literally. Such
gaudy fantasies taken to impossible extremes
by no taste and money. It’s your kind of town.
Why else would your self-portrait end up in
The Guggenheim Gallery located just off the
reception lobby of the Venetian Hotel?
You don’t look happy it must be said. You
look like someone contemplating suicide.
But the colors are compelling in that
forthright manner of yours. The utterly
convincing unexpected choice. Like the canals
of Venice on the second mezzanine level
pyramids pirate ships New York Paris Donald Trump.

 

 

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