Signs 1967

Adolph Gottlieb made this, ‘Signs’, with broad brushstrokes of ink on a field of bright yellow. I can imagine Gottlieb, maybe in the late afternoon, dipping a wide brush into a pot of ink, holding it above the paper, and then letting it fall, like a heavy punctuation mark. What was he thinking? Was he angry? Probably. These guys were always mad about something. But there's also something playful about the way the black shapes are arranged. They almost look like they're dancing across the surface. The ink is thick, pooling in some areas and feathering out in others. It’s a physical record of his gesture. These marks remind me of Franz Kline, another Abstract Expressionist, but with a more primal, symbolic edge. They also point toward the calligraphic traditions of Asian art. Artists are always chatting with each other across time. Gottlieb is gone, but his gestures still speak to us, inviting us to find our own meanings in his signs. It’s like a visual game of telephone.