Black Signs

The Black Signs rug represents a rare and intellectually significant chapter in the late career of Adolph Gottlieb. While the artist’s celebrated Burst paintings dominate public recognition, this work belongs to the equally important pictograph tradition that occupied Gottlieb throughout much of his life. In the Black Signs rug, the artist’s symbolic language is translated into woven form, creating a composition that feels both elemental and deeply contemplative.

The design was conceived in 1967, just before Gottlieb’s major retrospective shared between the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim. Woven in 1970, the rug belongs to the final period of the artist’s career and stands among the last authorized textile projects produced during his lifetime. Its publication by Gloria F. Ross in New York places it within one of the most important collaborations between American abstract painters and master textile workshops. Ross was instrumental in persuading artists of the New York School to explore weaving as a medium capable of preserving the power of modern painting.

In contrast to the cosmic drama of Gottlieb’s Burst imagery, the Black Signs rug is built from a quieter but equally powerful visual language. Scattered across a luminous ground are a series of bold black glyphs — shapes that resemble primitive markings, eyes, zigzags, or ritual symbols. These signs are not intended as literal imagery but as archetypal forms, echoing the visual vocabulary of ancient cave painting and early symbolic art. In wool, the signs acquire a tactile presence that reinforces their sense of weight and immediacy.

Equally remarkable is the rarity of the edition. Produced in an edition of only five examples, the Black Signs rug belongs to a category of artist multiples that approach the uniqueness of a singular artwork. Its woven initials and publisher’s markings confirm its authenticity within the Gloria F. Ross program.

The result is a work that feels less like a decorative textile than a field of symbols laid across the floor — a quiet but powerful extension of Gottlieb’s search for a universal visual language.