Michael (Corinne) West

Michael West (1908-1991) was one of the most single-minded and forceful painters of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, extraordinarily independent for her time and obsessively driven throughout her long career. Born Corinne Michelle West, she was a painter and poet whose relationships with many of the important figures of Abstract Expressionism exerted a lasting influence on the movement, even as the blatant bias against women painters of her generation kept her largely on its margins during her lifetime. In the face of persistent disregard from critics and dealers, West remained determined to paint on her own terms and continued to develop her practice for the whole of her life.

West's first formal study began in 1927 at the Cincinnati Art Academy, following an early interest in music. In 1930 she joined a theater group and married the actor Randolph Nelson. By 1932 she had returned decisively to painting and enrolled in classes taught by Hans Hofmann at the Art Students League, becoming a member of Hofmann's first class in New York. Hofmann proved exactly the teacher she needed, combining his knowledge of Cubism and other modern techniques with his own commitment to an inner mystical reality within abstract painting. This early formation shaped her lifelong belief in the spiritual dimension of abstract art.

West's true artistic awakening came when she was introduced to Arshile Gorky. She and Gorky became intimately and romantically involved for the following decade, and his emphasis on the linear approach to abstraction and his engagement with European Surrealism profoundly shaped the direction of her career. In 1934 she divorced her first husband and moved to live with her parents in Rochester, New York, continuing to paint and exhibit while carrying on the affair with Gorky. Probably at Gorky's urging, she adopted the nom de brosse Mikael, changed in 1941 to Michael, in an effort to obscure her sex, a decision comparable to that of Grace Hartigan, who used the name George after George Sand, and Lenore Krasner, who adopted the more androgynous Lee.

In 1941 Gorky married Agnes Magruder, ending his affair with West. She returned to New York in 1946 and immersed herself in the excitement of the postwar art community, making important new friends including the composer Edgard Varèse and the painter Richard Pousette-Dart. West referred to Pousette-Dart as the "White Mystic," the title of a poem she dedicated to him. She became intimately involved with Pousette-Dart but married the avant-garde filmmaker Francis Lee, whose deep roots in the artistic community gave West entrée to Jackson Pollock, Peggy Guggenheim, Clement Greenberg, and other central figures. The year West married, Gorky committed suicide.

West's own work exploded at this time, developing a certain power, energy, and emotional depth. She was included in the Stable Gallery annual of 1953 and had her first solo exhibition in 1957 at the Uptown Gallery. She became deeply interested in Zen Buddhist calligraphy, creating a startling series of gestural abstractions derived from Japanese Zen masters. This extraordinary woman certainly walked down the road less traveled and remained true to her art throughout her life. Her paintings are held today in the Whitney Museum of American Art and other significant American collections.