Crimson Spinning #2

1959

American, 1903-1974

A native New Yorker, Gottlieb became one of the early supporters of abstraction in the 1930s, a decade before it became a driving force of the American vanguard. He first became known for his invented visual language of symbols and archetypal abstractions, including eyes and graphic marks, arranged in grid formations that covered the entire canvas. This painting is part of a celebrated series known as his Burst paintings. Begun in 1957, the series introduced a dynamic between two distinctive forms on a white field. Gottlieb noted, “…this was like a solitary image or two images that were just floating in the canvas space. They had to hold the space and they also had to create all the movements that took place within the rectangle.” Crimson Spinning #2 was painted flat to prevent the paint from running.

Oil on canvas

90 x 72 in. (228.7 x 182.9 cm)

Gift of the Friday Foundation in honor of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis

2020.14.9

Provenance: The artist; [Galerie Rive Droit, Paris, France]; private collection, Paris, France; Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sherwood, Beverly Hills, California, via 1965 auction; [Marlborough Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Jane and Richard E. Lang, Seattle, Washington, 1972; Friday Foundation, Seattle, Washington, 2018; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2020

Photo: Scott Leen

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York School: The First Generation, Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, June 16 - Aug. 1, 1965. Cat. no. 35, reproduced p. 98.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: Third Quarter Century, Aug. 22 - Oct. 14, 1973. Cat. no. 23, pp. 14, 98, reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Richard and Jane Lang Collection, Feb. 2 - Apr. 1, 1984. Cat. no. 13, p. 27, reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection, Oct. 15, 2021 - Nov. 27, 2022. Text by Sanford Hirsch. No cat. no., pp. 15, 44, 112-117, 186, reproduced pp. 113 (pl. 10), 183.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics, Dec. 22, 2022 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesA Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum and University of Washington Press, 2008. Reproduced p. 31.

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