Adolph Gottlieb
U.S., 1903-1974 The Couple, 1946
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 32 in.
State Department Collection, Purchase, War Assets Administration,
1948
In his
paintings of the 1940s, Adolph Gottlieb placed freeform, subconscious
images within the tight confines of a grid. They have been referred
to as "Pictographs." When asked about the compartments
of his pictographs, Gottlieb replied, "A large family requires
many rooms for the members of the family. So the children of my
imagination also require many rooms."
Gottlieb
was influenced by the art of other cultures, many of which were
being exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s
and 40s. During a trip to Arizona in 1938, he studied the sand paintings
of the Southwest Indians, which may have resulted in this limited
palette of grays. Colors, shapes, and simplified forms of non-Western
cultures interested Gottlieb more than their social or spiritual
meaning.
Gottlieb sought universal symbols
that would appeal to everyone on an unconscious (or subconscious)
level. This linked him to Surrealism, a movement that began in 1924
with the writings of the Frenchman André Breton. Surrealism
became a starting point for many of the American Abstract Expressionists
such as Gottlieb.
