Adolph Gottlieb is credited with being one of the founding member s of The Ten, a group of artists dedicated to abstract art. The group numbered amongst its members Marc Rothko and William Baziotes. Gottlieb was a major proponent of Abstract Expressionism and is considered amongst the first generation of Abstract Expressionists along with Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Barnet Newman, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollack. In 1943 Gottlieb and Rothko wrote a letter to "The New York Times," in which they made the first formal statement of Abstract Expressionism:
“We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”
During this time Gottlieb’s reputation as an important artist was confirmed. A major “double exhibition” at the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968 solidified his place in the annals of Abstract expressionism.
Sotheby’s New York, Jan. 1966
Estate of Joseph Mazer, New York
By descent to private collection
Abby M. Taylor Fine Art
Private collection, New York City, 2015 to present