Adolph Gottlieb

Adolph Gottlieb (New York 1903 — 1974) trained in Germany, France and the United States, where he studied at the Art Students League in New York. He was an outstanding artist in the generation of the Abstract Expressionists, founding the group The Ten, together with Mark Rothko, in 1935. Eight years later he took part in the creation of the New York Artist-Painters group, once again with Rothko, and with John Graham and George Constant. He was one of the first exponents of the movement who developed a coherent body of paintings, which in the case of the “pictographs” in the early forties reworked the premises of the European avant-garde movements, revealing the impact of Constructivism. In the course of time he became one of the fundamental names of Abstract Expressionism in its most meditative, poetic facet, close to his friend Mark Rothko. He constructed an oeuvre of great individuality which opened up new paths for artistic creation and the interpretation of classic themes, as his imaginary landscapes and still-lifes show. An analysis of Gottlieb’s work, setting out from his appreciation of tribal art and his personal view of modernism and incorporating untraditional forms and emotional contents, is fundamental for an understanding of the evolution of American art and its relationship with contemporary European art. The exhibition, which includes works from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, is the first to be devoted to this North American artist in a Spanish museum.