Deciphering the Flowers

Sheena Wagstaff

December 24, 2013

2 min. watch

This video is part of 82nd and Fifth, a series that invites curators from across the Museum to talk about an artwork that changed the way they see the world.

“It’s like an extraordinary kind of life that is in the process of procreation.”

Curator Sheena Wagstaff deciphers the language of Arshile Gorky’s 1944 painting Water of the Flowery Mill.

Contributors

Sheena Wagstaff
Leonard A. Lauder Chairman, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art

Photography by Joseph Coscia Jr.

Art Mentioned

Water of the Flowery Mill, Arshile Gorky American, born Armenia, Oil on canvas — Water of the Flowery Mill
Arshile Gorky
1944

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