Dan's Papers - May 23, 2008 - Art Commentary With Marion Wolberg Weiss

Last week's critique of photographer Ken Robbins revealed a myriad of styles and influences. The same dynamics may be applied to Adolph Gottlieb's work currently at the Pollock Krasner House. Much of his art was inspired by Jung, Indian Space painting and Surrealism. Perhaps even Cubism.

What's intriguing to this critic, however, is Gottlieb's connection to language, originating from pictographs and then, by extention, to conceptual art. The idea that pictographs formed the basis for "montage" in cinema is another way in which diverse arts can derive from a similar source.

Simply put, pictography is a method in which images can be combined to convey meaning. Considering that it originated thousands of years ago, such an approach was an extraordinary way to communicate.

Yet it was also simple - for example, image one could show a pair of eyes; image two could show tears. The meaning is crying. One plus one equals a concept. The great Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein, used this method to create montage: a series of images put together to convey an idea or emotion. The overall effect produces a new entity. And because Eisenstein was using the Marxist tenet of opposition, his montage became thesis plus antithesis equals synthesis.

We're not suggesting that Gottlieb was a Marxist or, more to the point, employed a kind of montage in his pictographs. It's difficult to discern the symbols or structures that he did use. We're not sure, either, if we should "read" the images, arranged in a grid, on a horizontal plane or a vertical one.

The aesethetic aspects we can be sure about concern the abstract qualities of Gottlieb's work - often doodle-like shapes or linocut primitive figures. One etching, "Apparition," is an appropriate term for all the pieces. In a nut shell, we don't know what we're seeing or experiencing.

Even so, that doesn't keep us from trying to figure out the meaning of Gottlieb's pictographs, particularly. Although hieroglyphs are a different language form, "reading" vertically one 1944 work, "Hieroglyph," as if it were a pictograph, reveals the following, albeit subjective, interpretation. A child's head at the top left corner, plus a tent-like form plus a zigzag line plus a square black box equals the idea of both security for a young person (tent, smoke) and danger (black box). This meaning is based on the fact that the last image is not a circle, but a shape connoting entrapment.

Gottlieb's contribution to more modern art movements may be far-flung, but the importance of language is an essential part of conceptual art. Consider, for example, Ed Ruscha's and Bruce Nauman's integration of language into their work. Gottlieb can certainly be given some credit for his exploration and experimentation in the field of linguistics - and by extention, conceptual art.

Mr. Gotlieb's work will be on view at the Pollock Krasner House until July 26. Call 631-324-4929 for information.