During the 1940s and 1950s, Adolph Gottlieb created paintings known as “pictographs,” which reflected his interests in Surrealism and geometric abstraction. He insisted on the relation of his symbols to the unconscious. With its graphic signs ordered in a grid, Totem appears to convey a readable message, the icons cohering into the features of mask-like faces accompanied by simple patterns. While Gottlieb claimed to avoid specific cultural references in his work, his encounter with Native American imagery during trips to the Arizona desert in the 1930s may have inspired the painting’s earth-toned palette.

Wall label, 2021.