Arshile Gorky, who taught Mark Rothko, also committed suicide. Gorky, born Vosdanig Manoug Adoian, was an Armenian who fled the modern day Republic of Turkey during the Armenian genocide in 1915. After his mother died of starvation in Yerevan, he immigrated to the United States and changed his name to Arshile Gorky. He enrolled at the New School of Design in Boston, where he displayed his ability for painting. He eventually moved to New York and began teaching. Gorkys muse was Corinne Michelle West but he would never succeed in tying her down. He proposed on multiple occasions but the answer was always no. In 1941, Gorky married Agnes Magruder, the daughter of Admiral John H. Magruder. They had two daughters, but Magruder wouldnt stay faithful to the union. She had an affair with Roberto Matta, another Surrealist painter in 1946. The same year, Gorkys studio burned down and he underwent treatment for cancer. He was in a terrible car accident two years later that left him temporarily paralyzed. Magruder left him and took his daughters. He hanged himself in his Connecticut home the same year. So, whats the moral of the story? Dont marry cartoonists; dont drink too much, and never count on your spouse to stay if you get cancer.
