Gorky was an American artist born in Armenia. His friendship with André Breton and other Surrealists who had come to the United States from France led to his producing abstract paintings. In this late-period work, indeterminate shapes suggesting floating matter are drawn to unfold over the entire picture plane. Organic-seeming shapes formed of delicate lines, freely drawn in crayon, cover the sur face. Here and there, Gorky also applied pastels. Its composition, without a central point, had a significant impact on Abstract Expressionism.