Arshile Gorky was born Vostanik Adoian near Lake Van, and he survived what his family did not. The Armenian Genocide took his homeland and, in 1919, his mother — she died of starvation in his arms. He carried her image for the rest of his life, painting and repainting her from a single old photograph, always returning to the eyes. In America he became one of the fathers of Abstract Expressionism. He never stopped being Armenian. This design is built around his own words: "Our eyes. The eyes of the Armenian speak before the lips move and long after they cease to." A woman gazes out from beneath a traditional coin headdress, rendered in high-contrast black and white — and the word ARMENIAN is cut directly across her face, the letters framing her eyes rather than hiding them. The typography isn't laid over the portrait. It's carved from it. What remains is exactly what Gorky described: the eyes, holding steady through the letters, speaking without a word — a tribute to the painter, and to the gaze he spent a lifetime trying to hold. Armenian Eyes — Arshile Gorky is part of the Hayk Heritage Cultural Voices collection. Premium 180 GSM cotton. Made to order, ships in 2–5 business days.