Pictograph 1942

Adolph Gottlieb's "Pictograph" is an oil on canvas, a medium with a long and loaded history in Western art. Gottlieb applied the paint in a deliberate, almost architectural manner, dividing the canvas into a grid of distinct cells, each housing its own symbolic form. Look closely and you will see how the texture and weight of the oil contribute to the painting's impact. The materiality of the paint emphasizes a methodical, handcrafted approach, rather than the mechanized touch of industrial production. The forms—eyes, fish, hands—are primal and universal, alluding to a shared human history. "Pictograph" engages with questions of labor and production through the act of painting itself. The work embodies a dedication to craft, and to the transformative potential of human labor when applied to raw materials. This emphasis on materiality and process challenges traditional notions of fine art, by blurring the boundaries between conception and execution, and celebrating the work of the hand.