
Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) was one of the "first generation" of Abstract Expressionists. Born in New York City he studied at the Art Students League from 1920-1921 and again after he returned from travel and studies in Europe. Gottlieb was a masterful colorist and in the Burst series his use of color is crucial. He once said: “I frequently hear the question, ‘What do these images mean?’ This is simply the wrong question. Visual images do not have to conform to either verbal thinking or optical facts. A better question would be ‘Do these images convey any emotional truth?’
Burst
August sun scarring heaven’s face
the scent of burning skin
turns night to day, black to ageless red’s
barbaric burst of light—
noon on the killing fields
bleached black
red sun rising in the east
a blister in the sky
without a face.
Primeval
(after the painting by Adolph Gottlieb)
First awakening
First the crawling light
glows first
among the suns
First black then red
then spectral white
First an infant
then the sun
speaks alphabets
in silent space
First the scrawl
of a deity
upon the earth’s
beginning
as at its last
First words matter
in the garden of
our death.
Echo
(after the painting by Adolph Gottlieb)
We are two brothers
two moons hovering
above the earth
perfectly aligned children
of promiscuous gods
their echoes we echo
each other’s better half
and worst
our orbits intersect
from time to time
when too-close brothers
too-soon collide
as sibling do
who envy the other’s
surpassing side.
surpassing side.
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