Gottlieb and Rothko

Gottlieb’s Jagged, an oil on canvas measuring 72 x 48 inches, was painted in 1960 (Fenton 2). We definitely see a Zen-like aspect to Jagged. The piece is basically composed in two portions by the artist, both of them painted against a white background that is slightly swirled with tones of gray that gives the background a cloud-like appearance and mood. We are treated to degrees of mystery and ambiguity in this piece, due to the fact that the bottom half of the painting appears to be a large black hole with jagged edges as if something was shot through the painting. Above it rests a calm, red-hued circle that appears whole and calm against the ripped, jagged, opening just beneath it. We see the attempt to juxtapose two contraries: beauty and brutality. The top circ

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thing we take from Jagged as a viewer is the fact that the composition of the piece and the contrasting images are meant to inform us that life is not good versus evil or beauty versus brutality, but, that, life is both good and evil and beauty and brutality. We accept the whole range of contraries in human experience and that is what gives meaning to life and that is what Jagged makes us contemplate from its use of contrasting images, colors, and seemingly chaotic composition. We also see how the black, jagged, hole at the bottom of the piece could be associated with a Rorschach image, showing the influence of modern psychology and philosophy on American expressionism. Rothko’s Number 22, an oil on canvas measuring 38 ½ x 39 ¼ inches, was painted in 1948 (Rothko 1). While Rothko’s work uses more colors and is busier in motion than Gottlieb’s Jagged, it is as balanced and invites contemplation as much. Where Gottlieb painted chaos at the bottom of his piece balanced by the circle or symbol of wholeness at the top, Rothko’s chaos is a swirling mix whose overall impression is one of some huge nebula in space, one whose swirls and movement is circular and whole despite the chaos of the components. Like Gottlieb, however, R
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Approximate Word count = 1491
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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