Adolph Gottlieb: A Powerful Will to Art

A career-spanning monograph on a key member of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionists American artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903–74) was a central figure of the New York School of art from its very beginnings in the 1930s. The Pictograph paintings that he began making in 1941 are among the earliest examples of American artists creating work on a par with European modernists while establishing a distinct identity. His art has been the subject of 25 solo museum exhibitions, nationally and internationally, and is in the collections of over 145 museums. Adolph Gottlieb: A Powerful Will to Art is a career-spanning monograph on the artist. It contains an original essay by James Lawrence, which traces Gottlieb’s career within the context of his contemporaries, as well as the traditions of Western painting, and offers new insights into this important artist’s contributions to his field. The beautifully clothbound volume reproduces 200 of Gottlieb’s paintings covering the range of his career, showing his evolution from a 1926 self-portrait through the beginnings of the New York School and ending with his last major paintings in 1973. The book also contains a lavishly illustrated chronology of the artist’s career that draws from the archives of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation.