"Small paintings abound in Abstract Expressionism. The decreased importance given them seems more a product of art critics' rhetoric - presuming and promoting the ambition, vastness, and other "sublime" qualities of big paintings - than a reflection of actual artistic practice."
-Jeffrey Wechsler in the exhibition's catalogue
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), 1969, gouache on paper, 7 15/16 x 5 3/8 inches, Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), gouache and acrylic on paper, mounted on canvasboard, 7 15/16 x 5 3/8 inches, Untitled (Study for Partisan Review Cover), 1969, gouache on paper, 9x6 inches.
In the Spring of 1995, Manny Silverman Gallery in Los Angeles, California organized an exhibition of small-scale artwork by Adolph Gottlieb. The show included four decades of small-scale paintings, works on paper, and sculptures by the artist and highlighted Gottlieb's focus on creating abstract images regardless of the size of the object. Below is a selection of installation images, catalogue essays, and individual works in the exhibition.
"During the more than thirty-year span of Gottlieb's Abstract Expressionist enterprise, he seemed to approach all the elements of his art - subject matter and narrative, composition, gesture, color, size - with an open, unregimented mind. His retention of the relatively small Pictograph format well into the time when most of his fellows had moved into much larger, totally nonobjective art shows him to be an independent thinker whose stylistic shifts proceeded from inner purpose. His small paintings were scaled properly to the individual intentions of each specific work, fit the needs of each period of his art, and comprise a record of Gottlieb's ongoing balance of the objective and subjective aspects of his creative process."
-Jeffrey Wechsler in the exhibition's catalogue
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Untitled, 1973, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, Three Bars, 1969, oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches, Rose Ground, 1967, oil on canvas, 14 x 10 inches.
Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Untitled, 1969, oil and acrylic on linen, 16 1/16 x 20 1/16 inches, Arizona Still Life, c. 1938, oil on canvas mounted on pasteboard, 16 x 23 7/8 inches, Carnival, c. 1938, oil on canvas mounted on pressed board, 10 x 7 13/16 inches.
Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Pink and Blue, 1949, oil and enamel on canvasboard, 15 15/16 x 20 inches, Van Dyck - "Lucas van Uffel", 1963, acrylic on postcard, 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches, Musee Guimet, Cheval et Cavalier par Tchao-Mong, 1963, acrylic on postcard, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, Morning, 1950, oil and enamel on masonite, 24 x 30 inches, Rectangle Landscape, 1953, oil on composition board, 20 3/4 x 28 1/2 inches.
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Man and Woman, 1951, oil on masonite, 24 x 20 inches, Images, 1948, oil on canvas, mounted on pressed board, 14 x 18 inches, Pictograph, 1949, oil and tempera on canvas, mounted on pasteboard, 10 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches, Eyes at Night,1948, oil, enamel & casein on linen, mounted on masonite, 14 1/8 x 18 inches, Pink Pictograph, 1950, oil on canvasboard, 10 x 14 inches, Man with Fish,1949, oil and tempera on canvas mounted on masonite, 14 1/8 x 18 inches, Pink and Blue, 1949, oil and enamel on canvasboard, 15 15/16 x 20 inches.
Image: Installation views of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Untitled, 1956, oil and enamel on canvasboard, 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches, Untitled, 1956, oil and enamel on canvasboard, 11 7/8 x 8 ⅞ inches, Dream, 1967, oil and enamel on canvasboard, 20 x 24 inches.
Image: Installation views of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Looming #2, 1969, acrylic and alkyd resin on canvas, 48 1/8 x 60 inches, Petaloid, 1968, maquette; acrylic on cardboard, 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, Oval Slanted, 1968, maquette; acrylic on cardboard, 4 3/4 x 8 x 5 inches.
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995.
Works pictured (from left to right): Summer #2, 1964, oil on linen, 24 x 20 inches, Untitled - Gray Ground, 1967, oil on linen, 24 x 20 inches, Red Ground, 1961, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 29 3/4 x 24 inches, Blue Glow, 1967, oil on canvasboard, 24 x 20 inches.
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. The exhibition's catalouge is pictured on the front desk of Manny Silverman Gallery.
Works pictured (from left to right): Sand, 1960, oil and gouache on paper, 20 1/2 x 29 1/2, Summer #2, 1964, oil on linen, 24 x 20 inches, Untitled - Gray Ground, 1967, oil on linen, 24 x 20 inches, Red Ground, 1961, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 29 3/4 x 24 inches.
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Rectangle Landscape, 1953, oil on composition board, 20 3/4 x 28 1/2 inches, Sea and Tide, 1952, oil on masonite, 11 x 13 1/2 inches, Beach, 1952, oil on masonite, mounted to 2nd masonite panel, 11 x 13 3/8 inches, Black Band, 1952, oil on masonite, 11 x 13 1/2 inches.
Image: Installation view of “Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades” at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1995. Works pictured (from left to right): Blue Glow, 1967, oil on canvasboard, 24 x 20 inches, Deep Red Ground, 1969, oil and acrylic on linen, 24 x 30 inches, Green Disc, 1969, oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches.
A selection of artwork spanning each period of Adolph Gottlieb's practice that was exhibited in Adolph Gottlieb: Small Images Spanning Four Decades:
