Premonition of Evil

Adolph Gottlieb

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

Adolph Gottlieb was an Abstract Expressionist painter whose subjects and forms were derived from sources including African and Native American art. His series of Pictographs (1941–51) related to the beliefs and myths of these cultures, from which he created a unique visual language. Premonition of Evil, painted just after the end of World War II, depicts fragments of the human body in divided areas of the composition. Searching eyes stare out at the viewer through the windows in Gottlieb's informal grid.

Caption

Adolph Gottlieb American, 1903–1974. Premonition of Evil, 1946. Oil and tempera on canvas, unframed: 40 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (101.9 x 91.8 cm); framed: 40 3/4 x 36 3/4 in. (103.5 x 93.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc. in honor of Esther Gottlieb and Lawrence Alloway, 1990.163. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.163_SL1.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Premonition of Evil

Date

1946

Geography

Place made: United States

Medium

Oil and tempera on canvas

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

unframed: 40 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (101.9 x 91.8 cm); framed: 40 3/4 x 36 3/4 in. (103.5 x 93.3 cm)

Signatures

Signed lower left: "Adolph Gottlieb"

Credit Line

Gift of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc. in honor of Esther Gottlieb and Lawrence Alloway

Accession Number

1990.163

Rights

© artist or artist's estate

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