Adolph Gottlieb, “Classic Paintings”

You don’t any more old-school New York School than Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), an Abstract Expressionist whose measured methods stood in contrast to the gestural fireworks of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. A typical Gottlieb composition consisted of a monochrome background sporting an insolated shape—usually a circle or an oval—occupying the top half of the canvas while the bottom half featured gestures or marks that were likewise surrounded by a generous amount of space. The result was a kind of calligraphic evocation of a sunrise or sunset over a landscape—a theme well represented in this round-up of classic Gottliebs from the ’50s and ’60s.