CLASSICS | ADOLPH GOTTLIEB

ARTWORK | BURST | 1973

Beginning in 1956, Gottlieb’s monumental Burst paintings developed from the Imaginary Landscapes, focusing on a simplification of space and color from the earlier series. Though the more typical palette for these signature paintings consists of reds and blacks. In 1962, the date of this painting, Gottlieb spoke about the emotional quality of color in his work.

Burst (1973) Painted just a year before Gottlieb’s death, this is one of the last in this series of Burst paintings. The picture’s elongated form echoes the vertical composition of his earlier paintings, emphasizing the empty space between the lower and upper portions of the picture. A warm beige and compressed horizontal zone at the very bottom of the composition serves as a ground for the more delicate and complaisant black, gestural marks pushed against the lower edge. An achingly long distance separates this lower area from the hovering, red orb at the top of the composition, which casts an increasingly pink glow. Gottlieb felt that the space of the picture should function as a matter of the scale and size of the painting – as he said, the space of the picture is “the space that we’re confronted with.. in relation to your own size.”