About the Artist

1903:
Adolph Gottlieb is born in New York City on March 14, 1903. His parents are Emil Gottlieb (1873 – 1947) and Elsie Berger Gottlieb (1881 – 1958). His given name is Adolf, possibly after his maternal grandfather. The family lives at 295 East 10th Street in Manhattan at the time of his birth. Adolph is the oldest of three children and the only male child.

1920:
Gottlieb leaves high school and begins to work in his father’s wholesale stationery business, Gottlieb & Sons, at 264 East 2nd Street in Manhattan. He enrolls in the Art Students’ League, where he takes evening classes under John Sloan and attends lectures by Robert Henri. He shares a studio on East Broadway with Chaim Gross, Louis Schanker, and Moses and Isaac Soyer.

1921:
At the age of 18, Gottlieb and a friend work their passage to Europe on the Steamer Zeeland. He lives at 269 Rue Saint Jacques in Paris for 3–6 months. Attends sketch classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and visits the Musée du Louvre daily. Gottlieb later recalls seeing the Fernand Léger painting Three Women (now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art) when it was first exhibited.

1923 – 1924:
In New York, encouraged by his family, he attends high school classes in the evenings while working at his father’s business. He re-enrolls in the Art Students’ League; takes classes with John Sloan and Henry Schnackenberg. Gottlieb meets fellow students Barnett Newman and John Graham, who become lifelong friends.

1928 –1929:
Gottlieb begins showing his paintings at the Opportunity Gallery on West 56th Street in New York. He meets and begins lasting friendships with Milton Avery and Mark Rothko who also exhibit at the gallery. Enters and is awarded first prize, along with the artist Konrad Cramer, in the Dudensing National Competition. His prize is a solo exhibition at the prestigious Dudensing Gallery on East 57th Street in Manhattan. Adolph Gottlieb meets Esther Dick at a party in Greenwich Village.

1930:
Gottlieb rents a studio, which is occasionally shared with Barnett Newman, on East Broadway in Manhattan. His first solo exhibition opens at the Dudensing Gallery in New York on May 1. Gottlieb exhibits 18 paintings.

1933:
Gottlieb changes the spelling of his first name from Adolf to Adolph in reaction to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Summers in East Gloucester, Massachusetts, along with the Averys. The Gottliebs vacation in East Gloucester for three consecutive summers. They move to 155 State Street in Brooklyn in November. Gottlieb becomes close friends with the artist David Smith, who lives at 124 State Street. Gottlieb purchases a second-hand etching press and begins making prints in his home, a practice he will continue through 1947.

1935:
Gottlieb is included in the inaugural group exhibition of Gallery Secession, New York. He is a founding member of The Ten, a group of artists dedicated to expressionist and abstract painting. The Gottliebs travel to Europe visiting Amsterdam, Brussels, Tervuren, and Paris. In addition to museums and contemporary galleries, the Gottliebs visit galleries that display African art, some of which were recommended by John Graham. Gottlieb spends the money he had saved for a last special meal in Paris to purchase five African sculptures he is offered. They return to New York on September 3.

1937:
Gottlieb spends part of the summer in Fire Island, New York; then visits Avery in Bondeville, Vermont. He resigns from the WPA in October. To improve Esther Gottlieb’s health, the Gottliebs leave New York City on October 27 and drive to Tucson, Arizona, where they live and work for the next eight months.

1938:
In a letter dated March 3 in Arizona, Gottlieb writes to his friend Paul Bodin in New York, “We get the Sunday Times every Wednesday and…we don't seem to be missing much. From what I gather is going on (aside from Cézanne and Picasso now and then) I wouldn't swap all the shows of a month in N.Y. for a visit to the State Museum here which has a marvelous collection of Indian things.” In July, the Gottliebs return to New York from Arizona, then spend the summer in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In September they move to an apartment at 121 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY.

1939:
Gottlieb enters and wins a nationwide mural competition sponsored by the US Department of the Treasury. He paints a mural for the Yerington, Nevada, post office. Spends the summer in Woodstock, New York.

1940:
In April, Gottlieb is one of eleven artists who resigns from the American Artists Congress to protest the Congress’s refusal to oppose the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact. He helps found the organization “The Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors”; Gottlieb and Mark Rothko serve as the Cultural Committee. Gottlieb has a solo exhibition of paintings created in Arizona at the Artist’s Gallery in New York. The Gottliebs move to 130 State Street, Brooklyn, NY. He and Esther summer at 81 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, East Gloucester, Massachusetts; they will return to this address each year through 1945.

1943:
Gottlieb exhibits as a founding member in the First Exhibition of New York Artists—Painters. This group of abstract painters includes Mark Rothko, John Graham, and George Constant. 

Gottlieb co-authors a letter with Mark Rothko, edited by Barnett Newman, which voices the first formal statement of concerns of the Abstract Expressionist artists. The letter is published in the New York Times on June 13. Among others, Gottlieb and Rothko listed the following “aesthetic beliefs”: “We favor the simple expression of complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.” “There is no such thing as good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.” On October 13, Gottlieb and Rothko present their views on the radio program “Art in New York,” broadcast on station WNYC. Read more about Gottlieb and Rothko’s statement here.

1944:
Gottlieb is elected President of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors and serves through 1945.

1945:  
67 Gallery, run by Howard Putzel, takes on representation of Gottlieb’s art. This is the artist’s first representation arrangement. Adolph Gottlieb, a solo exhibition of twenty-eight paintings and ten works on paper, is on view at 67 Gallery, New York.

Following Howard Putzel’s death in August, Gottlieb signs a representation agreement with the Nierendorf Galleries, New York. A solo exhibition of 14 paintings, Pictographs of Adolph Gottlieb, is on view at the Nierendorf Galleries, New York.

1946:
Sam Kootz approaches Nierendorf, asking to take over the representation of Gottlieb’s art. With Nierendorf’s encouragement, Gottlieb signs an agreement with the newly formed Samuel M. Kootz Gallery in New York.

In a review published in Newsweek (August 12, 1946), Gottlieb is quoted explaining that the subject of his paintings involves “something that relates to life and evokes and expresses some of the feelings we are concerned with today, such as the disintegration of the world.” He goes on to describe his use of the grid as “a device I use to kill space.”

1948:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum purchases the collection of the late Karl Nierendorf which includes eleven paintings and gouaches by Gottlieb.

Gottlieb delivers a talk titled "Unintelligibility" as part of the forum, The Modern Artist Speaks at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, on May 5. He initiates a new direction in his art with a group of paintings that he labels Unstill Lifes.

1949:
In response to a request from Weldon Kees, Gottlieb assists in the organization of and participates in, Forum 49, an exhibition of contemporary art and a series of symposia on avant-garde art, architecture, film, music, literature, and poetry. The concept is initiated by Weldon Kees and Fritz Bultmann and takes place at several venues in Provincetown, Massachusetts from July 3–September 1. Gottlieb helps curate the art exhibition and organizes and is part of the opening panel, “What is an Artist?,” and is chair of the closing panel, “French Art vs. U.S. Art Today”. Read more about Forum 49 here.

The painting Pictograph (1949) is included in the exhibition The Intrasubjectives, Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York. The exhibition includes most members of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionist painters and is an early attempt to recognize common themes and practices among these artists. Gottlieb designs the cover of the exhibition flyer.

1952:
On July 28, Gottlieb signs a contract with the Park Avenue Synagogue, accepting a commission to design and oversee the fabrication and installation of a 1300-square-foot stained-glass façade for the Milton Steinberg House, a five-story structure to be built adjacent to the synagogue on East 87th Street in Manhattan. Read more about the Milton Steinberg House commission here.

1953:
Gottlieb resigns from Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. He designs and oversees the fabrication of the curtains and valence for the sanctuary containing the Torah scrolls, as well as tapestries for two floor-to-ceiling sliding panels, for Congregation Beth El in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1954:
A Retrospective Show of the Paintings of Adolph Gottlieb is organized by Clement Greenberg for the Bennington College Gallery, Bennington, Vermont. In the statement he writes for the exhibition, Clement Greenberg notes that “Adolph Gottlieb is among the half-dozen artists responsible for the appearance since the early 1940s of the first body of American painting that can vie with, if not surpass, the best contemporary work in Europe.”

1955:
Three paintings, Sea and Tide, Labyrinth #3, and Seer are included in the exhibition The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors, Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition subsequently travels to four museums across the United States. Gottlieb’s statement “Painting Aims” is published in the exhibition catalogue.

Gottlieb begins teaching a class at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, in the evening session. He will continue teaching this session into 1959.

In late December Gottlieb writes to Sidney Janis ending the Gallery’s representation of Gottlieb’s art. Gottlieb cites the Gallery’s lack of plans to exhibit or promote his success at the São Paulo Bienal as his reason for leaving.

1966:
Gottlieb resumes printmaking. He creates several editions of serigraphs and lithographs that are published by Marlborough Graphics, New York. These are the first editions of prints he has created since 1949.

On October 10, a fire destroys the building that houses Gottlieb’s New York City studio, burning all its contents, including several paintings by Gottlieb and paintings by his friends, as well as much of his library. About eight months later, he will establish a new studio at 190 Bowery.

1968:
Adolph Gottlieb, a retrospective exhibition organized jointly by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, opens at both museums in New York City simultaneously on February 13, 1968, the first and only time this has occurred. The exhibition consists of 124 paintings from 1941–1967 and is on view at both museums from February 14–March 31, 1968. The exhibition later travels to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts. “A Dialogue with Adolph Gottlieb”, a conversation between the artist and Lawrence Alloway, takes place at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, on February 15. Read more about this major retrospective here.

The opening event for the Gottlieb retrospective exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery venue is the Corcoran Ball, held under the patronage of the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, on April 26.

Gottlieb begins to make sculptures this year. He creates ten small maquettes in painted cardboard and twenty larger sculptures in painted steel or aluminum. He collaborates with Charles Slatkin to create his first tapestry, Burst (1968). The same year, Gottlieb collaborates with Gloria F. Ross, Edward Fields, and the Nazareth Workshop to create four additional tapestries. 

1973:
The Gottliebs travel to Phoenix, Arizona, where they intend to stay for two months beginning in February. On March 11, Gottlieb delivers a lecture and juries a student exhibition at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. On his return to East Hampton, Gottlieb begins work on a series of monotypes that continues until February 1974.

In the fall, Jeanne Siegel interviews Gottlieb in East Hampton. An edited version of the interview is published in the December issue of Art News, titled “Adolph Gottlieb at 70: I Would Like to Get Rid of the Idea That Art Is for Everybody”. He is interviewed on videotape by Hermine Freed and David Ross.

1974:
In September 1973, Gottlieb had ordered a large etching press that arrives at his studio in mid-February. He creates one monotype on this press that is his final work of art. He is admitted to the hospital that same week for treatment of emphysema.

Adolph Gottlieb dies on March 4 in New York City. His funeral is held on March 8, 1974. Three friends speak of the artist they knew: poet Leo Yamin, critic Harold Rosenberg, and historian Meyer Schapiro. Yamin, a friend since childhood, relates that Gottlieb “always wanted to be an artist. From the beginning, Gottlieb thought that art was not only different but better than other things.”

The Museum of Modern Art organizes a memorial exhibition Adolph Gottlieb: 1903-1974. In the wall text introducing the exhibition, William Rubin, Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, writes,

“In a generation that boasted many great painters, Gottlieb’s work was notable for its consistent quality — derived from the assurance with which he explored, over a period of almost 40 years, the unfolding of his own private vision…Until his death, Gottlieb continued to explore the possibilities of this balance of poetry and abstraction with a world of symbols he had made entirely on his own. He painted at the peak of his form to the end and had one of the longest and most undeviating careers in the history of American painting.”

1976:
Gottlieb left instructions in his will that a Foundation be created to “provide individual grants in aid to mature, creative painters and sculptors.” Following Gottlieb’s death in 1974, this paragraph becomes a mandate for the artist’s Estate to develop a program to provide direct financial assistance to individual artists. On October 26, 1976, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation begins to operate independently and becomes the first individual artists Foundation to provide direct, unrestricted financial assistance to visual artists.