In the fall of 1937, after Esther Gottlieb is advised by her doctor to move to drier climates, the Gottliebs move from Brooklyn, New York to Tucson, Arizona.
Above: a map indicating the location of the Gottlieb's Tuscon home. in a November 1937 letter to Paul Bodin, Adolph describes the house as "a nice little house on the outskirts of town, lots of space around it and a magnificent view of the Santa Catalina mountains."
In a 1975 Interview with Stephen Pearson, Esther Gottlieb discussed the Gottliebs' life in Tuscon:
"We went to Arizona from Brooklyn and Adolph was working on the WPA project. In the late Thirties I hadn’t been well, and the doctor said Tucson would be the place to go. Adolph was on the project at the time, and it was suggested that perhaps he should try to get a transfer to Arizona. However, he was unsuccessful in doing so, but we decided to go anyway. We put our furniture in storage and went to Tucson in 1937. I took sick leave from teaching, and with what money we had, we left New York.
It was very congenial to be there as far as work was concerned. When it came time to size canvas (the house was very small and there was no place to put it) he decided to wrap the house with the canvas. We started at our one door and worked our way completely around the house until we reached the door again. Then we proceeded around the house and drove nails, and then we laced the two edges of the canvas strip with rope and stretched it between the rows of nails.
People must have thought we were crazy. So, we wrapped the house and sized the canvas. When it was finished, we took it down and rolled it up. He had many pads of water color paper. He’d use one side, and if he didn’t like it, he’d use the other side. At that point, I would nail all these pieces of used paper on the outside of the pump house and size them. I would paint on those pieces of paper that Adolph had already painted on both sides, so we didn’t waste any.
We’d get up early and work, and usually towards nightfall we’d go for a walk. Later on, it was too hot to stay in the house, so we’d get up early and do our work, whatever we had to do in the morning, then we would sit on deck chairs in the shade of the house and have the hose handy to wet ourselves down. Before it got that hot, we used to stand at our easels, painting in separate rooms. When Adolph or I got hot, we would get under the shower, get soaking wet, and walk back to our easels. The dog would follow. He’d be the third one. Then he’d lie in the tub where it was cool."
above: ESTHER AT EASEL, 1937, pencil on paper, 10 7/8 x 8 1/2 “
During this period of time, Adolph Gottlieb began to experiment with painting techniques that eventually influenced the work he made when the Gottliebs returned to New York, a year later. He speaks about this experimentation in a 1967 interview with Dorothy Seckler.
ADOLPH GOTTLIEB: We went out there and lived in the desert for about nine months. It was very beneficial for my wife's arthritis and practically cleared it up. I produced a great deal of work during this period I was away from the New York scene and started using the material that was at hand. I didn't have any money. Art supplies were expensive. I started using paint from cans that I got from paint stores. I painted the objects that I picked up from the desert, dry pieces of cactus and other things, pieces of bone.
Everybody seemed to think that my colors were influenced by the desert because I use tans and browns and grays and soft colors. That may be. It's possible. It may be also that I just limited myself to that sort of a palette. Well, then I came back to New York and had a show of that work. A lot of people seemed to think I had become very abstract. It didn't strike me as being particularly abstract.
DOROTHY SECKLER: What made them feel it was more abstract? Was there a reduction of means?
ADOLPH GOTTLIEB: Yes. I simplified my space very much. And it was at that point that I became very much aware of certain special problems. It was necessary for me to have a certain kind of space for the kind of forms I wanted to use. That I think made it seem rather abstract. Oh, I was dealing with an abstract problem in that sense. It was all very tangible and specific to me as I worked but it had a look of what people call abstract.
Adolph corresponded often with Paul Bodin, with whom he discussed life in New York and the direction his art was heading as he explored in Arizona.
"Dear Paul-
Thanks again. I do hope now you will act upon my sincere request that you do the carting of my pictures in a taxicab. What if it does run into a couple of dollars thru the year? Believe me I would consider it well spent and worth while and mainly, would not feel so badly about your dragging my pictures about. I will now do what I should have done before leaving, send you some money to hold for possible expenditures such as taxi cabs. Will send a money order in a separate envelope in a day or so when I get to the P.O. in town.
Glad to get your report on Solman’s and Rothkowitz’s paintings. I get very little news about the “Ten” especially regarding painting. Anyway glad that some good work is being done. Presume that Solman is continuing his street themes. Is he? Is he more abstract? It’s a bit hard to visualize Rothkowitz being more organized. Well he certainly needed that.
How about your own things? Are you working?
Have dropped still life completely. Am oscillating between landscape and carnival things. I think I’ve gotten the hang of landscape at last. I mean a way of approaching the subject. Never thought I was cut out to be a landscape painter, but maybe I’ll be one yet.
The enclosed letter is one I sent you, that came back to me because I forgot to put the street number on the address.
Fondly, Adolph"
In 1999, an exhibition titled "Adolph Gottlieb and the West" opened at the Tucson Museum of Art before traveling to the El Paso Museum of Art and the Yellowstone Art Museum (in Billings, Montana). Below is a selection of drawings and paintings that were part of that exhibition.
Left: UNTITLED (ESTHER AT EASEL), c. 1937, oil on canvas, 40 x 36 1/8 “
Right: UNTITLED (CIRCUS GIRL), c. 1938, oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 29 7/8 “
Left: UNTITLED, c. 1938, collage, gouache and pencil on paper, 4 3/8 x 5 7/8
Right: STILL LIFE WITH CHESSBOARD, 1937, oil on canvas mounted on pasteboard, 16 x 23 7/8 “
"The Arizona Still Lifes were the major body of work he produced in Tucson. They represent Gottlieb returning to his core interests as a painter, at the same time as he was reaching forward to test his new approach to subject matter. He began working in series long before the notion became a popular method of the 1950s and 1960s. Gottlieb intended his still life paintings to present a vision of his experience of Tucson. He proposed to accomplish this goal within severely limited visual means. He allowed himself the images of the table, a few randomly placed objects, and, sometimes, a view through the window."
Left: UNTITLED (CACTUS STILL LIFE), c. 1938, oil on canvas, 24 3/4 x 31 3/4 “
Right: SYMBOLS AND THE DESERT, 1938, oil on canvas, 39 3/4 x 35 7/8 “
Left: UNTITLED (GRAY STILL LIFE - GOURDS), c. 1938, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 ”
Right: UNTITLED (PINK STILL LIFE - CURTAIN AND GOURDS), c. 1938, oil on canvas, 30 x 39 3/4 “
"The direction he began to pursue in Tucson allowed Gottlieb to integrate his feelings and thoughts about painting into a coherent direction. Through several false starts, he evolved the beginnings of a method that dealt primarily with the exploration of a contemporary visual language. The paintings he created were the means of that exploration, and the range it encompassed was quite extensive. He was able to touch on themes that became major issues not only in his own art, but in that of his colleagues as well.
Gottlieb returned to New York in 1938 to a mixed reception. He no longer felt comfortable with many of his old friends. He had realized that he could not go back to the old habits of showing each new work to his friends and reacting to their comments. He was committed to the idea of forging a new direction for painting. With that in mind, he began to meet regularly with his friend Mark Rothko to discuss issues. The result of those meetings was a major breakthrough in American art. In 1940 and 1941 Rothko began his Mythic paintings and Gottlieb began his Pictographs. Both artists determined that a few issues were paramount, and they listed some beliefs in a famous letter published in the New York Times. Within that short list was the following
We favor the simple expression of complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth. [1]
These were issues Gottlieb initiated in his Tucson paintings."
- Sanford Hirsch, from the catalogue essay for "Adolph Gottlieb and the West"
Left: UNTITLED (SELF PORTRAIT IN MIRROR), c. 1938, oil on canvas, 39 7/8 x 29 5/8 “
Right: PORTRAIT OF ESTHER, 1937, gouache on paper, 11 7/8 x 9 "
To see more from the archives of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, visit our website.
All artworks ©Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by ARS, NY, NY⠀