Pink and Indian Red
Artist
Adolph Gottlieb
(American, 1903 - 1974)
Date1946
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 27 3/4 × 35 7/8 inches (70.49 × 91.12 cm)
Framed: 29 1/2 × 37 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches (74.93 × 95.25 × 3.81 cm)
Framed: 29 1/2 × 37 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches (74.93 × 95.25 × 3.81 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation–Commerce Bank, Trustee
Object number2004.38
On View
On viewGallery Location
- L2
Collections
DescriptionThis painting consists of a roughly painted grid of rectangles of various shapes and sizes. Some of the rectangles and squares contain motifs such as arrows, dashes, and sketchily painted, sticklike figural forms and heads, whereas others remain empty. The largest figural form is centralized, and the abdoment is composed of concentric circles. The colors of the painting include russet, peach tones, creams, oranges, green, and black.Gallery LabelPink and Indian Red was created in the first of Adolph Gottlieb's mature styles: the Pictographs. Its rich, earthy palette, primal forms, loose grid and shallow space mark it as a key painting within the mythmaking phase of Abstract Expressionism. During this period, Gottlieb and many of his fellow painters responded to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung's notions about archetypal images and the collective unconscious. The simple, archetypal forms in this painting are related to those found on cave walls, in African and Oceanic art, in American Indian art and in the art of ancient Egypt and Assyria. This underscores Jung's idea that all cultures share an intuitive vocabulary of fundamental forms and symbols.
Copyright© Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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