Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell, among the New York School painters, stood out for his exceptional formal education. Proficient in literature, philosophy, and European modernist traditions, his paintings, prints, and collages display straightforward shapes, striking color contrasts, and a lively equilibrium between controlled and vigorous brushwork. 

Biography of Robert Motherwell

Born in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1915, Robert Motherwell spent a significant part of his youth in the arid landscape of central California, sent there to alleviate his severe asthma. Despite being the son of a prosperous and conservative bank chairman who anticipated his succession, Motherwell demonstrated a predilection for intellectual and artistic endeavors from an early age. Given this, his formative years included a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.

Before fully committing to art, Motherwell underwent an extensive academic journey in philosophy, literature, and art history. His educational path commenced at Stanford University, where he attained a BA in philosophy in 1937. It was there that he encountered the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead and delved into the works of French symbolist poets, igniting his interest in the potential for abstraction in both writing and art.

Following his undergraduate studies, Motherwell enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy at Harvard. However, his academic pursuits were temporarily halted by a yearlong European excursion in 1938, during which he became enamored with European modernism. Despite his inclination towards art, he was directed by his father to pursue a stable career path, leading him to study art history at Columbia University in 1940 instead of immediately pursuing his artistic aspirations. Yet, his time at Columbia was pivotal for his artistic evolution.

Upon arriving in New York, Motherwell became associated with the core group of painters who would shape the Abstract Expressionist movement. Another influential figure was art historian Meyer Schapiro, a Columbia faculty member at the time, who encouraged Motherwell's artistic endeavors and introduced him to the community of European Surrealists residing in New York. Motherwell was profoundly influenced by their concept of automatism, which posited that art could be a manifestation of the artist's subconscious, a principle that would become central to his own artistic practice.

During a 1941 journey to Mexico alongside Surrealist painter Roberto Matta, Motherwell produced his earliest known works, comprising eleven pen and ink drawings known as the "Mexican Sketchbook." While bearing the imprint of Surrealism, these pieces are fundamentally abstract, blending formal composition with spontaneous creativity. 

Motherwell's artistic trajectory gained momentum in 1943 when Peggy Guggenheim extended an invitation for him to contribute new works to a collage exhibition featuring several European modernists. Embracing collage wholeheartedly, Motherwell continued to employ this technique throughout his career. His contributions to the exhibition encompassed torn paper, dynamically applied paint, and themes evocative of the tumultuous backdrop of World War II. The exhibition proved fruitful for Motherwell, leading to a solo showcase at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century Gallery in New York in 1944, followed by a contract with dealer Sam Kootz in 1945.

In the 1940s, Motherwell embarked on parallel careers in teaching, editing, and writing. Over the ensuing two decades, he served as an instructor at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, contributed to the establishment of an art school, Subjects of the Artist, in New York's Greenwich Village, and taught at Hunter College. His literary endeavors included writing for the Surrealist publication VVV in 1941, as well as editing influential publications such as the Documents of Modern Art series, Possibilities, and The Dada Painters and Poets anthology. Throughout his extensive career, Motherwell remained active in lecturing and writing about art.

Unlike numerous peers and contemporaries within the Abstract Expressionist movement, whose lives and artistic endeavors were tragically brief, Motherwell sustained a productive output over the ensuing three decades. During this period, he remained dedicated to painting, printmaking, lecturing, and delving deeper into the thematic concerns that had preoccupied him throughout his lifetime. Following a long and prolific career, the artist passed away in 1991 at his residence in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The Art Style of Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell's art mirrors a conversation with art history, philosophy, and modern art, alongside a genuine exploration of personal experiences, current affairs, and fundamental aspects of human existence such as life, death, oppression, and revolution.

Motherwell's most renowned Elegies to the Spanish Republic series, comprising over 140 works, emerged in 1948 with a small drawing intended to accompany a poem in Possibilities. The following year, Motherwell transformed the sketch into a painting titled At Five in the Afternoon, named after a poem by Federico García Lorca, a poet who met his demise during the Spanish Civil War. These paintings utilize the war's tragedy as a metaphor for universal human suffering. Characterized by stark black-and-white palettes, expressive brushwork, and tension between organic and geometric forms, they aim to symbolically depict the cyclical nature of human existence.

Between 1953 and 1957, Motherwell created his second significant body of work known as the Je t'aime series, titled after the French phrase present on each canvas. These pieces showcase a brighter and broader color palette compared to the Elegies paintings while maintaining a dialogue between the structured compositions of European modernism and the spontaneous, emotionally expressive methods of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

In 1961, Motherwell embarked on reinventing his collages as limited editions of lithographic prints, making him the sole artist among the first generation of Abstract Expressionists to integrate printmaking into his artistic practice extensively. During this period, his collages also began to incorporate everyday detritus, such as cigarette wrappers, reflecting autobiographical elements and indicating the artist's ongoing engagement with both internal and external realms.

The artist initiated his third major series, the Opens, in 1968, following the dissolution of his marriage to artist Helen Frankenthaler. Like his previous series, these works revolve around a relatively straightforward formal framework — a two or three-sided rectilinear box set against a predominantly monochromatic backdrop — within which Motherwell discovered virtually limitless opportunities for variation and expansion.