A Closer Look: Exploring Abstract Images
Adolph Gottlieb began his Pictographs in 1941 after thinking through contemporary issues and approaches to painting. The Pictographs, based on presenting visual images organized within a hand-drawn grid, were a major development in Modern painting and Gottlieb continued to develop the idea for the next ten years. At the same time, his commitment to exploring the same ideas about abstract images with emotional content also led him to create a group of works utilizing a central image between 1942 and early 1944. A few of these less-known works and some material from our archives, appear in this newsletter.
Untitled, 1944, Etching and drypoint on laid paper, 3 1/4 x 2 1/2"
Head, c 1944, linocut on cream wove paper, 7 3/8 x 6”
Untitled, 1944, woodcut printed on wove paper, 14 3/16 x 11 13/16”
Untitled, 1943, drypoint on linen laid paper, 5 7/8 x 3 7/8"
Untitled, 1942, pastel on paper, 24 1/2 x 19 1/2"
Untitled, 1943, watercolor, pastel and graphite on paper, 26 x 20"
Persephone, 1942, oil on canvas, 34 x 26"
The Rape of Persephone, 1943, oil on canvas, 33 x 25"
Red Portrait, 1944, oil with cotton waste on canvas, 29 1/2 x 23 1/2"
Amoeba, 1944, oil on canvas, 24 x 20"
In 1944, Gottlieb exhibited a collection of pastels at the Wakefield Gallery, many of which were part of his abstract exploration. Above is the interior of the exhibition brochure, including a written foreword by Barnett Newman.
"It is a pleasure, then, to see Adolph Gottlieb repudiate, in these studies of bodies and heads, this narcissus attitude, to face the age-old philosophic problem of mind and matter, the flesh and the spirit, on equal ground with the philosophers. And he sets it forth with simplicity and dignity."
Above: a postcard from John Graham commenting on the Wakefield exhibition.
"Dear Adolph-- you are the one man in art in America who has been continuously progressing--your present show is the best you ever had. i was happy to see it and to feel enthusiastic about it. I would like Amoeba for myself. Much of everything to you, ever affectionately,
Graham"
Shown here: a letter from Gottlieb and Mark Rothko (with the assistance of Barnett Newman) to Edward Alden Jewell, art editor of The New York Times, 1943.
In the letter above, Gottlieb, Rothko and Newman rebut Jewell's "befuddled" reaction to their new paintings in a group exhibition and lay out their 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 wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth."
All artworks ©Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by ARS, NY, NY
To see more works by Adolph Gottlieb, click here.