Arshile Gorky’s descendants recently responded to reports that the Yerevan-based Arshile Gorky Foundation has undertaken fundraising efforts to transport and bury the remains of the Armenian-American abstract expressionist painter in Armenia.
Foundation chairman Badal Badalian announced on May 19 that his organization had undertaken fundraising efforts and "is requesting permission" to carry out on of Gorky’s greatest dreams to "to return home and to be one with the soil of Armenia."
Gorky’s son-in-law Matthew Spender–announced that the move to transfer Gorky’s remains to Armenia "eventuality requires the permission of Gorky’s descendants," including Gorky’s daughter–Spender’s wife Maro.
"I’d like to place on record the fact that neither she nor her mother–nor sister have been informed of the plan–and that they are against the idea. Gorky’s resting place in Connecticut is final," emphasizes Spender who wrote the 1999 biography of Gorky–From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky