The late Ron Gorchov was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1930. He attended the University of Mississippi in 1947, spending the following two years at the Roosevelt College and Art Institute in Chicago, rounding up his studies at the University of Illinois in 1951. As a groundbreaking artist in his time, Gorchov bridged sculpture and abstract painting, developing a singular artistic vocabulary over decades of practice. He belonged to a generation of painters who removed their canvases from the rectangular stretcher seeking a new pictorial field, and within his signature curved canvases, he united form and content while preserving their tensions. His hybrid painting sculptures created new dimensions and depth, disorienting the viewer’s perception.

'Spike' comes from an important provenance – the important collection of Robert Vogel who was a close friend, collaborator, and patron of Gorchov for over 40 years. As his financial backer, it was arranged that he was able to get his pick of Gorchov's series, and subsequently amassed an impressive collection, some of which were donated to important institutions including the Milwaukee Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Gorchov’s paintings are included in other renowned collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Everson Museum of Art, New York.