Untitled #74
38.1 cms x 50.8 cms (15 ins x 20 ins)
Signed, dated 1967 and inscribed "74" and on verso titled and dated on the marlborough-gerson gallery label and inscribed "6774" and "3371f"
made in 1967
Lot offered for sale by Heffel, Vancouver at the auction event "Spring Live auction" held on Wed, Jul 15, 2020.
Lot 059
Lot 059
Estimate: CAD $20,000 - $30,000
Realised: CAD $55,250
Realised: CAD $55,250
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
Dunkelman Gallery, Toronto
Al Pyrch, Alberta
Private Collection, Victoria
Notes:
Known for his abstract paintings of distilled visual articulation, Adolph Gottlieb was a critical figure in post-war American art. In 1935, Gottlieb, alongside Mark Rothko, exhibited with a group known as “The Ten.” Their championing of abstraction challenged the institutional status quo, catalyzing the spread of modern art in New York and setting the stage for Abstract Expressionism.
Beginning in 1956, at the height of Cold War anxieties, Gottlieb almost exclusively painted his celebrated Burst series, perhaps one of the most poignant allusions to the atomic blast in post-war art. This untitled work from 1967, originally exhibited at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, in New York, continues from this series of works, in which Gottlieb would paint an orb-like shape in the sky, hovering above a ground of tangled calligraphic markings. For years he explored variations of this dynamic binary in depth, dividing the canvas in two with an imaginary horizon in the centre. Gottlieb conceived of this pictorial landscape structure as elemental in its opposition, through which profound dualities could be considered, such as heaven and hell, cycles of creation and destruction, and life and death.
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
Dunkelman Gallery, Toronto
Al Pyrch, Alberta
Private Collection, Victoria
Notes:
Known for his abstract paintings of distilled visual articulation, Adolph Gottlieb was a critical figure in post-war American art. In 1935, Gottlieb, alongside Mark Rothko, exhibited with a group known as “The Ten.” Their championing of abstraction challenged the institutional status quo, catalyzing the spread of modern art in New York and setting the stage for Abstract Expressionism.
Beginning in 1956, at the height of Cold War anxieties, Gottlieb almost exclusively painted his celebrated Burst series, perhaps one of the most poignant allusions to the atomic blast in post-war art. This untitled work from 1967, originally exhibited at the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, in New York, continues from this series of works, in which Gottlieb would paint an orb-like shape in the sky, hovering above a ground of tangled calligraphic markings. For years he explored variations of this dynamic binary in depth, dividing the canvas in two with an imaginary horizon in the centre. Gottlieb conceived of this pictorial landscape structure as elemental in its opposition, through which profound dualities could be considered, such as heaven and hell, cycles of creation and destruction, and life and death.
Most realised prices include the Buyer's Premium of 18-25%, but not the HST/GST Tax.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.