ADOLPH GOTTLIEB Orange Oval, 1972

Adolph Gottlieb, an American painter belonging to the abstract expressionist movement, was also accomplished in draughting, printmaking, and sculpting. His preferred medium was paint on canvas, which he used to display symbols that he created. These symbols would go on to retain meaning regardless of the viewer’s language, region, and time period. As his art matured, he would work towards creating a universal experience of his art, as opposed to the more subjective experience present in his earlier pieces. One of Adolph Gottlieb’s most well known pieces, titled “Vigil,” features the aforementioned symbols. He believed that these symbols had to power to help decode the collective unconscious as described by psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. “Vigil” features faces in the form of masks and evokes a theme of blindness as opposed to vision. This is shown by the juxtaposition of the light eyes of the masks and the darkness of the background of the canvas. Less

Adolph Gottlieb, an American painter belonging to the abstract expressionist movement, was also accomplished in draughting, printmaking, and sculpting. His preferred medium was paint on canvas, which he used to display symbols that he created. These More