1985.128.B: Untitled
PaintingsThe painting is a mixture of dark reds with rust colored patches with lightly applied white and light red-brown paint outlining various shapes and symbols resembling birds, an amphora, mask-like faces and hieroglyphs organized in a grid pattern. The faces, placed at the bottom center, dominate the work. A black triangular shape with a light brown disc slightly off-center and a diagonally placed light brown triangle branching off the base are placed in a square in the upper right corner. On the left side is a vase shaped object in light reddish brown.
Gallery Text
As a key figure of the New York school, Gottlieb vehemently defended abstraction against critics who saw the work as obscure and befuddling. His oppositional stance — and that of his peers — earned them the nickname “The Irascibles.” In Black Ground (1985.128.A), one of his Imaginary Landscape paintings, Gottlieb presents a mysterious world of symbols and colors that evoke the idea of landscape while not representing a specific place. The unfinished work on the other side (1985.128.B) dates from an earlier moment in his career. The allover pattern of symbols, organized within a grid, reflects Gottlieb’s interest in Jungian psychology, Greek mythology, and the forms of non-Western cultures. At a moment when the United States was emerging from World War II, Gottlieb proposed that the very act of painting was a heroic quest for meaning in an unstable age.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1985.128.B
- People
-
Adolph Gottlieb, American (New York, NY 1903 - 1974 New York, NY)
- Title
- Untitled
- Other Titles
- Former Title: Pictograph (verso)
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- c. 1948-1949
- Places
- Creation Place: North America, United States
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/226414
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1200, Modern and Contemporary Art, Mid–century Abstraction I
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Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Oil on canvas stretched over artist's board
- Dimensions
-
35.9 x 45.7 cm (14 1/8 x 18 in.)
framed: 38.7 x 48.9 x 3.5 cm (15 1/4 x 19 1/4 x 1 3/8 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
Adolph Gottlieb; to [André Emmerich Gallery, New York, New York], sold; to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Gershinowitz, New York, New York, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1985.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Gershinowitz
- Copyright
- © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Accession Year
- 1985
- Object Number
- 1985.128.B
- Division
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Contact
- am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 1200 Mid-Century Abstraction I (Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
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Verification Level
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