The American painter Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) was a pioneer in the movement of Abstract Expressionism, working closely with other artists seeking new ways of self-expression.

Adolph Gottlieb was born in New York City on March 14, 1903. He left high school when he was 16 and enrolled in the Art Students League in New York where he studied painting under Robert Henri and John Sloan. In 1921 Gottlieb worked on a steamer for his passage to Europe. He took classes at the Académie de la Chaumière in Paris and later traveled to Munich and Berlin. Returning to New York in 1923, he finished high school and for the next six years studied at art schools in the city.

Gottlieb was awarded a joint prize in the Dudensing National Competition in 1929 and in the following year shared a two-man exhibition with Konrad Cramer at Dudensing Galleries in New York. In...