Corinne Michelle West

Corinne Michelle West (1908–1991) was an American painter; she also used the names Mikael and Michael West.[1][2][3][4] She was an Abstract Expressionist.[4]

She was also Arshile Gorky's muse and probably his lover, although she refused to marry him when he proposed several times.[2]

She graduated from the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1930.[4] In 1936 she had her first solo exhibition, at the Rochester Art Club; that year she also began to go by Mikael to obtain better opportunities, and after Arshile Gorky told her that the name "Corinne" sounded like that of a "debutante's daughter." [4] In 1941 she began to use the name Michael, which she used in her regular life as well as her painting.[4] She exhibited in Manhattan's prestigious Stable Gallery in 1953, and had a solo show in 1957 at the Uptown Gallery in New York City.[2] In 1958 she had a one-woman show at the Domino Gallery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.[1]

She also wrote poems; she wrote a series of 50 poems in the 1940s, including the poem The New Art in 1942.[1] Later in 1968 she created a series of poem-paintings related to the Vietnam war.[1]

She was married briefly to Randolph Nelson in the 1930s, and in 1948 she married filmmaker Francis Lee, but they divorced in 1960.[1]

The first major West Coast exhibit of her work was held posthumously at Art Resource Group's Newport Beach, California gallery in 2010.[2][4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Michael West American 1908-1991". Borghi Fine Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "A woman painting in a man's world". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "NEW YORK SCHOOL ART GALLERY". Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Michael West: Paintings from the Forties to the Eighties". Art Resource Group. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
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