Lot 130
  • 130

Adolph Gottlieb

Estimate
400,000 - 600,000 USD
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Description

  • Adolph Gottlieb
  • Interplay
  • signed, titled and dated 1963 on the reverse; signed, titled and dated 1963 on the backing board
  • oil on canvas
  • 60 1/4 by 47 3/4 in. 153 by 121.3 cm.

Provenance

Susan Morse Hilles, Wellesley
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Walter N. Rothschild, Jr., Syosset (acquired from the above in 1971)
Christie's, New York, May 10, 2006, lot 164
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Exhibited

New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Adolph Gottlieb: Twelve Paintings, February - March 1966, cat. no. 2, illustrated
Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hayden Gallery, Adolph Gottlieb, May - June 1966
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Painting Today: Selection from the Collection of Susan Morse Hilles, October 1966, cat. no. 36, illustrated

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is bright, fresh and clean. There is evidence of light wear and handling toward the edges and a faint impression of the bottom stretcher bar. There is some very minor and stable craquelure scattered, including an approximately 3 inch horizontal line of craquelure along the top right edge. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In 1947, Adolph Gottlieb laid down what was akin to a prophetic aesthetic gauntlet, when the artist surmised that “the role of the artist, has always been that of an image-maker. Different times require different images...To my mind certain so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all.  On the contrary, it is the realism of our time." (Adolph Gottlieb, “The ides of Art: The Attitudes of 10 artistis on their art and Contemporaneousness,” The Tiger’s Eye: On Arts and Letters, December 1947, n.p.)  A social as much as artistic commentary, the unwavering commitment to his role and responsibility as an artist, made Gottlieb a crucial and uncompromising visionary to a generation. He not only created a major style of unquestionable originality, but one who challenged the very future vision of painting.

The present work, Interplay, 1963, is an eloquent and pictorial apotheosis of Gottlieb's pioneering vision. Painted at a vital moment for the artist, Interplaywas created the same year in which Gottlieb had his first major exhibiton at the Walker Art Center and was the first American artist to be awarded the Gran Premio at the Beinale in São Paolo, Brazil. Already considered “one of the most adventurous artists in the country," (Clement Greenberg, quoted in Irving Sandler, Adolph Gottlieb, New York, 1977, n.p.), Interplay is a triumphant evolution of the three styles that delineate the decades of artistic production - from the pictographs, to the imaginary landscapes to the bursts. As Gottlieb's career was marked by an intense dualism – a constant effort to achieve an experience that simultaneously was emotional, irrational and thoughtful, his most celebrated paintings are therefore marked by conflicting forces and emotions. Duality is the aesthetic vertebrae of Interplay, as among the bold forms, Gottlieb inserts a subtle ocular reference in their midst. This symbol, was once readily employed in his Oedipus series of the Pictographs – a powerful body of work that at once addressed his surrealist, mythological and primitive interests. Gottlieb cherished the ambiguity of a pictographic image, as it liberated interpretation on a variety of intellectual and emotional levels. The implicit ambiguity now becomes effusive of meaning within Gottlieb’s tightly choreographed and confident abstraction.

Interplay is a powerful convergence of theory, ideology and color whereby limited powerful forms are suspended in rhythmic tension over placid yet tightly contained landscape.  The effect is powerful: transcendent simplicity colliding with expansive monumentality.  Within the composition, Gottlieb suspends large elemental shapes over the profoundly moody abyss of modulated blues, creating an astonishing spatial depth within the two dimensional picture plane. The chromatic surface of Interplay is of seminal importance, as Gottlieb placed much more emphasis on the value of color than the color itself.  He was fascinated by the possibilities within a subtle aberration of a hue, and employed color “to achieve a vigorous effect and the burden of the artists’ intent.” (Martin Friedman, Adolph Gottlieb, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1962, n.p.).  A consummate minimalist in shapes, the very “interplay” of the forms, in size, color, and their poetic relationship to one another are integral to the depth of expression conveyed  – therefore making Interplay an academic and painterly triumph for Gottlieb and spectacularly achieves what was always the paramount objection of Gottlieb in his painting, “What is important is not the quality of the paint, but the quality of feeling.” (Adolph Gottlieb as quoted by David Storey, “Gottlieb’s Vital Images,” New York Times, December 1, 1972, p. 29)