Shown: (left) The final Partisan Review cover published in 1970, Volume 37, Number 1.
(right) An uncropped printer’s proof of the cover and spine.
Adolph Gottlieb was a lifelong advocate for artists' involvement in contemporary culture and reader of Partisan Review. In 1969, after his joint solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim and the Whitney museums, Gottlieb was asked to design the cover of a 1970 issue of Partisan Review. Founded in 1934, Partisan Review was one of the most significant cultural literary journals in the United States. The Review's editors William Phillips, Philip Rahv, and Edith Kurzweil provided a vital space for the publication of creative essays, commentary, book reviews, and book excerpts.
In its sixty-nine-year history, the journal published the work of such luminaries as James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett, Allen Ginsberg, Franz Kafka, Doris Lessing, George Orwell, and Susan Sontag.
Adolph Gottlieb, Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), 1969, gouache on paper, 7 15/16 x 5 3/8 inches.
The journal also referenced and reviewed Adolph Gottlieb's artwork, including Clement Greenberg's 1955 article titled "American-Type" Painting. Greenberg was a major contributor to the publication having contributed over 30 articles to the Review from 1939 to 1981.
"Over the years, in a characteristically sober way, Gottlieb has made himself one of the surest craftsmen in contemporary painting: one who can, for instance, place a flat and irregular silhouette, that most difficult of all shapes to adjust in isolation to the rectangle, with a force and rightness no other living painter seems capable of."
–Clement Greenberg, an excerpt from"American-Type" Painting in Partisan Review, 1955, Vol. 22, No. 2
Adolph Gottlieb, Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), 1969, gouache and acrylic on paper, mounted on canvasboard, 7 15/16 x 5 3/8 inches.
While designing the 1970 cover, Gottlieb made 3 studies on paper before finalizing the cover design featuring an irregular red disc above an asterisk. It is interesting to note that Gottlieb painted some of these studies on the pages of previous issues of Partisan Review as a shortcut to visualizing the correct scale. Hence, the text is visible under the paint in some of the studies creating a collage effect.
Adolph Gottlieb, Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), 1969, gouache on paper, 9 x 6 inches.
You can read and view all the issues of the journal online, including the issue with the Gottlieb cover: 1970 Vol. 37 No.1.
Installation photos of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades 1938–1973” at Manny Silverman Gallery, April 1995. Three untitled studies for the cover of Partisan Review (all 1969).