With just days to go before the conclusion of Cape Ann Museum’s special exhibition “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea,” the museum announced the gift of an artwork from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation.
The 1936 painting by Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974) is among the more than 82 artworks featured in this ground-breaking show.
Sanford Hirsch, executive director of the Gottlieb Foundation for 50 years, said the gift was in recognition of the exceptional efforts of the Cape Ann Museum and Guest Curator Eliza Rathbone in organizing the exhibition, and in appreciation of the “great support and interest in this exhibition and these artists shown by the community of Cape Ann.”
The painting is untitled, an 18- by 24-inch oil on Masonite.
“This gift is to become part of its permanent collection and to further its purpose as a museum to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the region,” Hirsch said in the announcement.
More than 25,000 people have visited the exhibition since it opened June 30. The show closes this Sunday, Sept. 27.
Hirsch said the artwork represents an important transitional painting based on sketches the artist made of the piers in Gloucester during one of his many summers on Cape Ann.
“The painting depicts a lone figure on a pier, a gray presence on a gray day, in a manner that shows his early interest in Surrealism. It is fitting that this painting will belong to the community where it was conceived, and it is our hope that it will continue to be valued by this and future generations of Cape Ann’s citizens and visitors,” Hirsch said.
Museum Director Oliver Barker said the donated painting is an unexpected and much appreciated gift.
The untitled artwork of the lone man sitting on an empty dock is devoid of any fishing- or maritime-related activity, and illustrated in somber tones. It was created in 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression.
Barker said the Gottlieb painting also is important because it represents when Cape Ann’s once thriving granite industry faced economic uncertainty during the Great Depression.
The museum community is thrilled about this gift.
“This work makes an important contribution to the museum following such a successful exhibition, and it is especially meaningful because the Gottlieb Foundation does not typically make institutional donations like this,” Barker said. “The foundation’s decision was inspired by their partnership with the museum and their recognition of how warmly this community embraced the exhibition. That is truly powerful.”
The special exhibition shares the story of three New York artists and friends — Gottlieb, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and Milton Avery (1885–1965) — who summered together on Cape Ann on and off for more than three decades.
Founded in 1976, the Gottlieb Foundation has two main purposes: to offer individual visual artists annual grants and a separate program to support visual artists in emergencies; and to utilize its collection of art to organize or lend to relevant public exhibitions.
This Gottlieb painting is the second artwork connected to the special exhibition to be donated to Cape Ann Museum, which celebrated 150 years in 2025.
Last month, Rothko’s son, Dr. Christopher Rothko, gifted his father’s 1934 watercolor and gouache painting “Untitled (wharf, Gloucester, Massachusetts),” to the museum’s permanent collection.
This special exhibition was guest-curated by Rathbone, chief curator emerita at The Phillips Collection, whose close connection to the artists’ families enabled her to uncover new insights into their summers on Cape Ann, and its lasting influence on this trio of artists.
When the exhibition closes in Gloucester, it moves to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., marking the first time a Cape Ann Museum exhibition will tour to a national museum.
Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-675-2706, or gmccarthy@northofboston.com.