Gorky Exhibition at the Tate Modern‏

Please note that the Arshile Gorky Exhibition comes to an end on 3 May.

So plan your visit if you have not already done so.

As you would expect, there are a number of guides to the exhibition and books on the artist.

There is one other book, expensive at £50, but with the most wonderful photos.

Details are

Armenia Holy Land Cradle of Civilisation

by Graziella Vigo

published by Skira Editore

ISBN: 9788857204109

What you will not expect is that all attendees are given a sheet that follows

(apologies for the text size changes due to the way it's been captured).

Apparently Turkish orgnisations have been pressing the Tate's management not to document the Armenian Genocide in the terms that they have

(odd because of the seminal way these events had a direct impact on the artist and his family).

Hence the Tate's response.

The Armenian Legal Initiative Group will be making representations to the Director.

We would urge others to do the same so that the Tate knows that their action has been noted and is condemned.

Pathetic when you consider that an eminent jurist, expert in the field, has come to the opposite conclusion.

The texts associated with the exhibition

are careful to qualify the emotive term

'genocide' in relation to the tumultuous

experiences of Arshile Gorky's early

life. We are aware that the British

Government has found no pre-meditation

and that, therefore, the wartime events

of 1915 do not constitute a 'genocide'

in the legal definition. However, we are

also aware that other bodies_: including

the European Parliament, have reached

a different conclusion. We recognise

that the ways in which the events

have been described and the histories

written remain contentious, and it was

for these reasons that we described

them as 'widely held to be a genocide'

in recognition of their differing reception.