The Life and Identity of Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky was born Vostanik Manoug Adoian on April 15, 1904, in Khorgom, Van, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). His early existence was tied to a name and a place that he would eventually leave behind. As he moved through his life, he began to construct a new persona, a process of reinvention that involved shedding his original identity. He chose the name Arshile, a derivation of Achilles, the Ach…