Adolph Gottlieb
Different Times Require Different Images

: Horn, Switzerland

The american contemporary art GALLERY inaugurates its new lakefront space in Horn, Switzerland, with Different Times Require Different Images, an exhibition of works by Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), one of the central figures of American Abstract Expressionism.

Bringing together paintings and works on paper from 1950 to 1973, the exhibition highlights four major series — the Pictographs, the Labyrinths, the Imaginary Landscapes, and the Bursts. The presentation underscores Gottlieb’s conviction, shared with his friend Mark Rothko, that painting must embody “the simple expression of complex thought.” Gottlieb and Rothko worked closely together throughout the 1940s; both were founding members of the group later known as “The Irascibles” and co-authored the 1943 letter to The New York Times, a landmark manifesto of Abstract Expressionism. For Gottlieb, painting was not decoration but a means of addressing subjects of universal significance and lasting human resonance.

Sanford Hirsch, who has collaborated with the gallery since 1994, curates the exhibition and contributes an accompanying catalogue essay. “Gottlieb’s career is defined by independence and commitment,” Hirsch writes. “At each stage, he broke with his own success to search for an image that could resonate with the urgency of its moment.”

The title of the exhibition, drawn from Gottlieb’s own words, reflects his belief that art must continually reinvent itself in response to shifting historical realities — a principle that guided him from his early explorations in the 1930s through the late paintings of the 1970s.

Installed within the gallery’s new lakefront architecture in Horn, the exhibition offers visitors a contemplative setting in which to encounter Gottlieb’s work. Terraces overlooking the water create a dialogue between painting, landscape, and light, echoing the artist’s fascination with elemental forces.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the gallery, featuring Sanford Hirsch’s essay and a selection of archival photographs.