Robert Motherwell
"French Revolution Bicentennial Suite IV"
aquatint, photoengraving and collage
edition of 35
16.50" x 20"
"Rite of Passage III"
lithograph with chine-collé
edition of 98
24.75" x 35"
"Homage to Picasso"
lithograph
edition of 90
30" x 22" (SOLD)
"Capriccio"
collotype and screenprint
edition of 200
25.50 x 20" (SOLD)
"In White with Green Stripe"
lithograph with embossing and collage
edition of 75
35" x 24" (SOLD)
About the Artist
Motherwell decided to become a serious artist in 1941. Although he was especially influenced by the Surrealist artists Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, and André Masson, he remained largely self-taught. His early work followed no single style but already contained motifs from which much of his later art grew. He received his first one-man show in 1944 at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery in New York City.
In the mid-1940s Motherwell painted abstract figurative works that showed the influence of Surrealism. But in 1949 he painted the first in a series of works collectively entitled “Elegy to the Spanish Republic.” He painted almost 150 versions of these “Elegies” in the next three decades.
In 1961 Motherwell began making limited editions of his work. He was the only one of the original abstract expressionists to take up printmaking. He combined his unique abstract style with the materials and technical requirements of printmaking to create more than 200 editions over the next 30 years.
Motherwell was married to the American painter Helen Frankenthaler. He taught art at Hunter College (1951–58, 1971–72), directed the publication of the series “The Documents of Modern Art” (1944–52), and wrote numerous essays on art and aesthetics. He was generally regarded as the most articulate spokesman for Abstract Expressionism.
