Sold
Provenance:
The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, New York
Private Collection, London
Pace Gallery, New York
The Collection of Morton and Barbara Mandel, 1993
Sold: Christie's, December 2, 2020, Lot 118
Private Collection, California
Heather James Fine Art, New York
Exhibited:
New York, New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Adolph Gottlieb: Twelve Paintings, February - March 1966, illus.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hayden Gallery, Adolph Gottlieb, May - June 1966, illus.
Chicago, Illinois, The Arts Club of Chicago, Recent Works of Adolph Gottlieb, May - June 1967, pp. 1, illus.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, 1967 Pittsburgh International Exhibition, October 1967 - January 1968
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Adolph Gottlieb, February - October 1968, (also traveled to New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Washington D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art and Waltham, Rose Art Museum), p. 99, illus.
Washington D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Adolph Gottlieb: A Retrospective, April 1981 - January 1983 (also traveled to Tampa, The Tampa Museum; Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art; Austin, The University of Texas at Austin, Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery; Flint, the Flint Institute of Art; Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Museum of Art; Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Buffalo, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Tel Aviv, The Tel Aviv Museum), p. 142, no. 96, illus.
New York, New York, Knoedler Gallery, Adolph Gottlieb: Horizontal Paintings, January - February, 1988
Palm Desert, California, Heather James Fine Art, Subtle Opulence, September 8, 2021 - March 31, 2022
Palm Desert, California, Heather James Fine Art, First Circle: Circles in Art, February 14 - August 31, 2023
Literature:
Lucy R. Lippard, New York Letter: Off Color (Review), Art International, James Fitzsimmons, Lugano, Switzerland, April 1966, vol. 4, pp. 77, illus.
Andrew Hudson, The 1967 Pittsburgh International, Art International, James Fitzsimmons, Lugano, Switzerland, December 1967, vol. 10, pp. 57, illus.
Jane Margold, He Sees Twin Bill Part of Long Run, Newsday, Melville, New York, February 16, 1968, illus.
You Should Pardon The Expressionism, The Daily News, New York, New York, February 16, 1968, illus.
Lawrence Alloway, Melpomene and Graffiti, Art International, Zürich, Switzerland, Vol. XII, April, 1968
Christopher Andreae, Adolph Gottlieb, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts, July 23, 1968, illus.
Donn Fry, IMA Hosts Show of Gottlieb Abstracts, The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, May 16, 1982, illus.
Lot Essay:
I just paint from my personal feelings, and my reflexes and instincts. I have to trust these.
Adolph Gottlieb as told to J. Gruen, The Party’s Over Now: Reminiscences of the Fifties, New York, 1967
The term "azimuth" refers to a navigational measurement that indicates the direction of a celestial object from the observer's position. Adolph Gottlieb’s Azimuth stands as a testament to his artistic innovation and profound contributions to Abstract Expressionism: acting as a bridge between his Burst series and the Pictograph works that would follow, this departure from purely spontaneous gestural abstraction that would become a roadmap for a broader shift towards structure and intention within the entire movement.
Azimuth is a dynamic composition, intimidating in scale yet meditative in execution – the large white canvas is interrupted by a burst of color at its lower center, which is flanked by enigmatic symbols – a juxtaposition of vibrant colors, bold lines, and intricate marks showcase Gottlieb’s mastery. Its title reflects Gottlieb’s invitation to the viewer to navigate through their own experience with the work, fusing abstraction and symbolism in visual narrative as a new direction for the ethos of Abstract Expressionism as it explored its boundaries.
One of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionists, Gottlieb was born in New York and left school to travel extensively before settling amongst his peers at the Art Students League of New York, Parsons School of Design, Cooper Union, and the Educational Alliance. His early experiments in surrealism -- particularly involving automatic writing and subconscious imagery -- would later manifest themselves in his Pictographs series, spanning until 1950. Though he studied indigenous symbols extensively, he refused to copy or repeat any existing mark, so as not to have the viewer view works referentially. In doing so, Gottlieb created his own visual language, simplifying his representation through his consummate understanding of color theory.
Throughout his career, Gottlieb was featured in 56 solo exhibitions and over 200 group exhibitions and was the first of the Abstract Expressionists to have his work collected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum. A pivotal work, Azimuth was frequently included in these exhibitions, most notably as part of the artist’s retrospective (1981-1983) following his death in 1974.