Looming #2 1969

Adolph Gottlieb’s Looming #2 presents us with a horizon of color, painted with incredible control and a sense of deliberation. Imagine Gottlieb, positioned in front of the canvas, carefully mixing his paints to achieve the right balance between the earthy brown and the cool turquoise. He paints the shapes slowly, as if in meditation. The canvas is not just a surface, but a space for contemplation. I see the influence of his abstract expressionist contemporaries, such as Rothko, but with a controlled clarity that is uniquely his own. There’s something haunting about the simple palette of red, white, and black against this cool green, and solid brown. These colors and shapes are reduced to a bare minimum, making it very hard to dismiss. Gottlieb's painting is a reminder that artists are constantly in conversation with one another, grappling with similar questions about color, form, and the nature of representation itself. I find it inspiring.