Corinne Michelle West (1908-1991) was an American painter; she also used the names Mikael and Michael West. She was an Abstract Expressionist, and also Arshile Gorky's muse and probably his lover, although she refused to marry him when he proposed several times. She graduated from the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1930. In 1936 she had her first solo exhibition, at the Rochester Art Club; that year she also began to go by Mikael to obtain better opportunities, and after Arshile Gorky told her that the name "Corinne" sounded like that of a "debutante's daughter." In 1941 she began to use the name Michael, which she used in her regular life as well as her painting. She exhibited in Manhattan's prestigious Stable Gallery in 1953, and had a solo show in 1957 at the Uptown Gallery in New York City. In 1958 she had a one woman show at the Domino Gallery in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
She also wrote poems; she wrote a series of 50 poems in the 1940's, including the poem The New Art in 1942. Later in 1968 she created a series of poem paintings related to the Vietnam war. She was married briefly to Randolph Nelson in the 1930's, and in 1948 she married filmmaker Francis Lee, but they divorced in 1960. The first major West Coast exhibit of her work was held posthumously at Art Resource Group's Newport Beach, California Gallery in 2010.
