Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell (1915-91) Contents • Biography • Early Studies • First Important Abstract Paintings • Solo Exhibition: Art of this Century Exhibition • Elegy to the Spanish Republic • Experimentation and Collages • Prints • Collections

Biography

The American painter and printmaker Robert Motherwell was part of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, which also encompassed a range of other artists including Mark Rothko (1903-70), Barnett Newman (1905-70),Philip Guston (1913-80) and Willem de Kooning (1904-97). Stylistically Motherwell was highly changeable, and explored several different modern art movements, including Cubism, Collage, Primitivism, Surrealism and Minimalism. Although attracted to abstract art from the beginning, his work contains traces of figuration, as well as an intellectual narrative inspired by history, philosophy and personal biography. Motherwell began by studying philosophy at Harvard before taking up painting. Unlike the shy Rothko, Motherwell was highly   communicative: in addition to a prolific painting career he also wrote essays and books which discussed non-objective art. Switching from oil toacrylic painting in the 1960s, he often painted large areas of canvas in his distinctive blue or black. His long-running series of abstract paintings, entitledElegy to the Spanish Republic are considered to be his most important work, although he is also noted for his collage art and prints. He is regarded as one of the finest narrator-type abstract painters, and one of the great modern artists of the American school

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