"Gottlieb's art, as it creates itself from moment to moment, through success, and through failure, offers an experience we cannot get in museums. It is the kind of experience that the future usually envies the past for–because the present usually waits for the ratification of original art, and for the artist himself to finish developing before it begins to interest itself in the activity that produced the art. The Jewish Museum has not waited, and I congratulate it for that."
–Clement Greenberg from the exhibition catalogue essay
Shown: Installation image of Adolph Gottlieb at the Jewish Museum, New York, NY Nov. 17, 1957 - Dec. 31, 1957. Artwork pictured (from left to right): Burst, 1957, oil on canvas, 96 x 40 inches, Vigil, 1948, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, Whitney Museum of American Art, Black, Blue, Red, 1956, oil and enamel on linen, 72 x 50 inches, Museum Frieder Burda, Armature, 1954, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 inches, Tournament, 1951, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, The Museum of Modern Art.
In 1957, The Jewish Museum held an exhibition of Adolph Gottlieb's work that featured "a selection of paintings characteristic of his artistic development." The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue essay written by art critic Clement Greenberg.
We invite you to learn more about this important exhibition that is highlighted here through a collection of photographs, documents, and press.
Shown: Installation images of Adolph Gottlieb at the Jewish Museum, New York, NY Nov. 17, 1957 - Dec. 31, 1957. (left) Artwork pictured (from left to right): Black Sun, 1952-1956, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches, Evil Omen, 1946, oil on canvas, 38 x 30 inches, Neuberger Museum of Art, Groundscape, 1956, oil and enamel on canvas, 84 x 144 inches.
(right) Artwork pictured (from left to right): Unstill Life III, 1954-56, oil on canvas, 84 x 192 inches, Museum of Modern Art, Oracle, 1947, oil on canvas, 60 x 44 inches.
"Gottlieb is among the very few artists left in New York whose work I can go to in the confident expectation that my sensibility will continue to be challenged and my taste to be expanded. The very difficulty of his art, and that it increases in difficulty, attests to the fact that the heroic age of American art is not yet over."
–Clement Greenberg from the exhibition catalogue essay
Shown: The cover and first page of the exhibition catalogue for Adolph Gottlieb at The Jewish Museum. Artwork pictured: Burst, 1957, oil on canvas, 96 x 40 inches.
Shown: An invitation to the opening of Adolph Gottlieb at The Jewish Museum featuring a quote by Clement Greenberg.
Reception of the Exhibition:
The exhibition was covered widely in the press. Below is a selection of articles written about the exhibition.
Shown: (left) C.B. ''Adolph Gottlieb'', Arts Magazine, December 1957. (right) P.T. ''Adolph Gottlieb'', Artnews, December 1957.
A review of the exhibition written by E. C. Goossen in the Monterey Peninsula Herald. Goossen states that Gottlieb "has the passion for exactitude and "thinks" about his pictures. This exactitude is a pre-requisite for the kind of paintings Gottlieb obviously wants to make; paintings about tension. Gottlieb is perhaps one of the first, and undoubtedly one of the most skillful manipulators of implied action, particularly in the way he extends it beyond the canvas."
In a March 1958 letter to Goossen, Gottlieb thanked him for his review saying, "Thanks for writing intelligently, on a high level, and for criticism in the best sense. This is something rarely seen in the art press."
Shown: A review of the exhibition written by E. C. Goossen in the Monterey Peninsula Herald, December 18, 1957.
Shown: A letter sent to Mr. Goossen by Adolph Gottlieb thanking him for his review of the artist's exhibition, March 8, 1958.
Personal Letters:
Our archives hold many letters from friends congratulating Gottlieb on the success of his exhibition at The Jewish Museum.
Below is a letter sent to Gottlieb from his friend, the sculptor, David Smith, detailing his appreciation for the artist's recent exhibition at The Jewish Museum. Smith writes:
"This is a fan letter. Your show at the museum was great. It was excellently chosen and some of the 1957 works I had not seen, even better. I hope you get some great sales from it. For me, it was wonderful to see so many over the period. Seasons Greetings to you and Esther, David S and all of us."
Shown: A letter to Adolph Gottlieb from David Smith on the reception of the artist's exhibition at The Jewish Museum, December 25, 1957.
Artwork Exhibited:
A selection of some of the artwork in the exhibition:
