Watertown honors Armenian artist Arshile Gorky

An intersection in East Watertown will be named in honor of Armenian-American painter Arshile Gorky.

Gorky would also be honored with two plaques placed near the homes where he and his family lived while they were in Watertown.

Arshile Gorky was the last of the great surrealists, the first of the abstract expressionists and the most important figure in the art of the twentieth century. Gorky’s paintings are exhibited in all major galleries in the United States. He was born into an Armenian family in the village of Khorgom, near the town of Van (Western Armenia). In 1915, he fled Lake Van during the Armenian genocide and escaped with his mother and three sisters into Russian-controlled territory. After his mother’s death, Gorky emigrated to the United States in 1920 to join his father. In search of himself, he changed his name to “Arshile Gorky” after his favorite writer Maxim Gorky.