Lucille Corcos 1934

Lucille Corcos was painted by Adolph Gottlieb in 1935, probably in oil on canvas. Just imagine him there in the studio, maybe a little anxious about what he’s doing, working, reworking, going over the lines again and again. What always gets me about figurative paintings is that it's not just a likeness of someone, but it's also a physical record of the artist's looking. The whole thing is made up of marks, sometimes scrubby, sometimes deliberate, to build this person up from nothing. Look at the hand holding what appears to be a pipe. The planes of color are so direct, and the color palette makes me think of other painters like Milton Avery, who used color and shapes to create a feeling of a place rather than a picture-perfect depiction. Painters are always looking at other painters; it’s one big conversation across time. Gottlieb, Avery, and others—they’re all part of this ongoing exchange, inspiring each other to see and feel in new ways.