David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, Adolph Gottlieb, Edgar Levy, Lucille Corcos and Esther Gottlieb, 1933-1974

 David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, Adolph Gottlieb, Edgar Levy, Lucille Corcos and Esther Gottlieb,

1933-1974

Etching

14 1/4 × 12 3/4 × 2/5 in

Edition 79/100

Signed and dated in pencil by Dorothy Dehner and Edgar Levy and signed in pencil by Esther Dick Gottlieb on the recto

Art historian Karen Wilkin, who owns an edition of this rare work, calls this once-in-a-lifetime collaborative etching "An important document of the history of American Art." It is rarely found on the market as other editions are in the National Portrait Gallery, the Whitney, and other prominent collections. If you don't snag this one, another may not come around for a long time. Here's the incredible story:
One evening in 1933, six artists gathered at the Brooklyn Heights apartment of Edgar Levy and his wife Lucille Corcos at 66 Montague Street. Adolph Gottlieb was there with his wife Esther Dick and David Smith with his wife Dorothy Dehner. It was decided to make an etching, each one to make a portrait of another. Who was to portray whom was determined by drawing lots. The zinc plate was divided into six parts - Top row: Lucille Corcos by Dorothy Dehner, David Smith by Lucille Corcos, Adolph Gottlieb by Edgar Levy. Bottom row: Edgar Levy by Esther Gottlieb, Dorothy Dehner by Adolph Gottlieb, Esther Gottlieb by David Smith. The animals in the borders are by Edgar Levy. The resulting plate was proofed and a few copies made in 1933, but it wasn't until 1974 when the edition of 100 was printed.
In a 2012 New Criterion article review of Adolph Gottlieb, historian Karen Wilkin wrote:
"For years a wonderful little etching has hung near my desk. It commemorates an evening in 1933 when a group of young artists in Brooklyn Heights, three men and three women, celebrated their friendship, ambition, and dedication to modernism by making portraits of one another on a single etching plate. The couples were Edgar Levy and his wife Lucille Corcos, David Smith and his wife Dorothy Dehner, and Adolph Gottlieb and his wife Esther Dick. Who was to portray whom was decided by drawing lots. The result was a grid of vivid characterizations: Levy by Dick, Corcos by Dehner, Smith by Corcos, Dehner by Gottlieb, Gottlieb by Levy, and Dick by Smith. In the top left box, Corcos’s slenderness is suggested by a few delicate lines. Beside her, Smith’s full lips and short nose are rendered energetically; in the next square, Gottlieb’s heavy-lidded eyes and natty moustache are insistently hatched. Everything is presented in ways that bear witness to the various authors’ energy, their sense of camaraderie, and their shared admiration for vanguard art, especially for Picasso.

By the time the print was editioned, not long after Gottlieb’s death in 1974, only Dehner, Dick, and Levy survived to sign their sections of the drawing. And by then, the playful evening’s amusement of 1933 had turned into an important document of the history of American art. Each of the six protagonists had been, in his or her own way, a “player.” ..."
Here is the link to the full article:
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2002/12/adolph-gottlieb

Good vintage condition; overall toning to sheet; not examined outside of vintage frame; (see photos)