Untitled 1947

This untitled piece, probably made with oil paint on canvas, comes to us from the mid-century imaginings of Adolph Gottlieb. He’s playing with a palette of rich browns and stark blacks, cut through by delicate linear gestures. Gottlieb divides his canvas into a grid of symbolic forms. The paint isn't trying to hide, you can see every brushstroke. The surface has a wonderful, gritty texture, especially in the larger black shapes, where you can see the drag of the brush. And it’s all underpinned by these delicate, almost spider-web like white lines. Look at the top right, see how the square has a kind of totem or mask, reduced to its most elemental forms? Gottlieb wasn't interested in making a copy of something - he was aiming for something more essential, more primal. It makes me think of the Pattern and Decoration movement, artists who were finding inspiration in places and things that “fine art” had been overlooking for decades. It’s a reminder that art is always evolving, always in conversation with the past and the present.