The youngest member of the circle of first generation
Abstract Expressionist painters, Robert Motherwell was
unique in this group for his extensive writings on art
as well as his prolific printmaking. Born in Aberdeen,
Washington, in 1915, Motherwell grew up intending to become
a philosopher and received a bachelor's degree in philosophy
at Stanford University before heading east for graduate
study at Harvard. As a child Motherwell’s artistic
talent was encouraged with a scholarship for study at the
Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, but he did not begin
painting seriously until embarking on a year of European
travel in 1938.
In 1941, after traveling to Mexico with Chilean surrealist
Matta Echaurren, Motherwell decided to paint full time
and moved to Greenwich Village. During this decade, he
was most influenced by European surrealists, including
Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy and André Masson. Interested
in the unconscious mind, Motherwell explored theories of
automatism by creating free-association collages that he
sometimes used as underpinnings for future painting compositions.
Automatism also offered Motherwell “an active principle
for painting, specifically designed to explore unknown
possibilities.”(1) Experimenting with this technique,
Motherwell developed a loose yet vigorous brushwork that
resonated with emotion.
Motherwell’s art displayed his passion for history,
literature, and the human condition. From the beginning
he strove to evoke a moral and political experience through
his art. As an example, the artist drew on the writing
of James Joyce for titles to his paintings, drawings, and
prints throughout his career. A poem by Spanish poet Frederico
García Lorca gave him the theme of the Elegy
to the Spanish Republic, which Motherwell explored
in over 200 works.
Motherwell met William Baziotes in 1942 and quickly gained
entry to the group of New York artists who would become
known as Abstract Expressionists. In 1943, art collector
and patron Peggy Guggenheim invited Motherwell, along with
Jackson Pollock and Baziotes, to contribute work to an
all-collage group show. The following year, Motherwell
had his first one-man show at Guggenheim’s Art of
This Century Gallery.
In the late 1960s, Motherwell began his Open series, a
striking departure from his gestural paintings. Typically
fields of color marked with faint charcoal lines suggesting
a door or a window, the Open paintings were originally
inspired by the sight of a small canvas leaning against
a larger one. For the rest of his career, Motherwell painted
in both expressive and austere modes, in addition to creating
collages and collaborating with printmakers to make limited
edition prints.
Motherwell died suddenly at his home in Provincetown in
the summer of 1991 and worked productively up to the end.
By this time, his career had been widely celebrated and
examined with exhibitions not only at Museum of Modern
Art in New York, but also at the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, D. C., the Royal Academy in London, the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and the Tamayo Museum
in Mexico City (this opened posthumously).
1) David Rosand, ed. Robert Motherwell on Paper.
(New York: Abrams, 1977), p.14.
© Copyright 2007 Hollis Taggart Galleries
