Often referred to as the last Surrealist and first Abstract Expressionist, Arshile Gorky (c. 19001948) appears as an interstice within art historys linear progression. Gorky embraced dream imagery in the tradition of the Surrealists, used all-over patterning before Jackson Pollock, promoted disembodied color before Mark Rothko, exploited the physicality of paint before Willem de Kooning, and anticipated stain painting. His lifeescaping the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and struggling as an immigrant artist in New York in the 1930s and 1940sand his tumultuous personal relationships have cast the artist as a tragic figure and often overshadowed the genius of his art.