Sometimes I think I see early Cycladic sculptures as an influence on certain Gorey drawings and figures.
I mean I know Gorey loved the balletic forms (he was a serious balletomane!) but there is an element of primitivism in some of the bodies and faces that makes me think it might have been there as an influence.
Some people point more to artists like Modigliani when looking for this influence (and of course the Cyclades are just one example of where primitivist sculpture used some of these strategies of representation).
But look particularly at how much the one figure above resembles that black doll that obsessed him so, and appears in so many of his drawings and books!
I know the original doll was a rag doll, but still.
And it's this thing he often has with faces and particularly with noses.
I'm not suggesting it's a pervasive thing, but I see it here and there.
Maybe it's just a coincidence.
