During the First World War, he fought in the Polish Legion under Józef Piłsudski. He drew a documentation of the everyday life of his fellow combatants; he took notes of events at the camp, sketched portraits of the leaders and soldiers. He presented his drawings and lithographs at Exhibition of Polish Legions organised in Lublin in 1917.
After the end of the war, he first settled in Poland, and later lived in Vienna and Germany. In 1920-30, he was a member of the Vienna Hagenbund. In 1926, he returned to Paris, where he exhibited at, among others at Galerie aux Quatre Chemins (1927), d'Art de Montparnasse (1928), Bonaparte (1930), and Zak (1934). In 1929 and 1930, he joined exhibitions of the Association of Polish Artists ‘Rytm’.
During the early period of his practice, Gottlieb was under a strong influence of the Young Polish style; he introduced lightly modulated patches of colour with soft, liquid outlines. The portrayed persons, deep in thought, overwhelmed with decadent impotence, were composed into a flat, cropped space with a neutral background; their thin, sleek hands drawn in a shaky line were especially poignant. These drawings are characterised by a melancholy aura and a thorough psychological study of models (such as for instance André Salmon, Julesa Pascin, Diego de Rivera, Stefan Żeromski, and Jan Kasprowicz). Gottlieb also inscribed human silhouettes into ornamental compositions showing deserted cities and open landscapes. In 1904, he published ‘Teka litografii’ together with Ludwik Cylkow – it featured his compositions Pogrzeb (A Funeral), Wierzba nad wodą (Willow Over Water), and Wymarłe miasto (Dead City), which evoked a nostalgic mood, an aesthetic of passing and death. The decorative harmony of uniform colour stains echo compositions of Maurice Denis and Les Nabis from Paris.
Gottlieb’s paintings from the 1910s – which often represented Biblical themes – began to feature a range of colours limited to reddish browns and greens as well as an intensified linear rhythm of compositions, constructed out of arched line sections recurring both in human figures and in the landscape. This rhythm bestows musical properties upon the canvases, while the Evangelical themes become a ritualistic act. The artist interpreted the motifs of Christian iconography in an original manner, developing various versions of subjects from the Old and New Testament (Chrystus jako żebrak (Christ as a Beggar), Ostatnia Wieczerza (The Last Supper), Pieta). Beginning in 1920s, Gottlieb’s paintings were dominated by multi-person compositions showing scenes of labour and meal consumption which acted as metaphors of human existence. The dramatically flattened space of the canvas was filled with ethereal human silhouettes with overstylised, slender proportions, sometimes outlined in black. The symbolical air of these paintings was boosted by a dark, subdued colour palette. In 1927, Gottlieb radically narrowed the colours down to several primary tones, light blues, pinks, and browns; he enhanced the shades of mother of pearl with white accents. The artist strongly synthesised the forms and reduced their substantiality (Wieczerza rybaków (Fishermen’s Supper), 1926; Trzy kobiety (Three Women); ca. 1932; Modlący się Żydzi (Praying Jews), 1933; Taniec (The Dance), 1934). In the 30s, the decorative aspects of his paintings were based on a dense rhythm of composition punctuated by wondrous figures in interiors, almost devoid of physiognomical features. Outlines of forms were drawn out from the white surface of the background by a soft, at times vanishing contour, painted in blue, green or black (Narodziny dziecka II (Birth of a Child II), 1930; Mleczarnia (Dairy), 1931-33; Białe kobiety (White Women), 1933).
Author: Irena Kossowska, Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, December 2001, transl. AM, October 2017