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Robert Motherwell was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology. He was influenced by Surrealism, philosophy, and political themes, and created his famous Elegies to the Spanish Republic series.
- Most Important Writings
- On Existentialism
- On The Function of The Modern Artist
- Harold Rosenberg and Possibilities
- The Legacy of Robert Motherwell
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"The Modern Painter's World" Dyn November 1944 Originally delivered as lecture at Mount Holyoke College, August 1944 Originally given as a speech, this essay was published in the short-lived magazine Dyn, edited by the Austrian-Mexican Surrealist painter Wolfgang Paalen, who released only six issues. In it Motherwell addressed the Modern artist's p...
Several philosophical viewpoints that informed Motherwell's writings, but none did so more than Existentialism. For him, the creation of abstract art was a personal journey and the result of a personal crisis. He viewed the conditions of modern society as having a direct consequence on the Abstract Expressionist'sfundamental evolution. At the 1951 ...
The modern artist, according to Motherwell, was constantly in a state of questioning his own existence and his own role in the world. "The artist's problem is with what to identify himself," wrote Motherwell. "The middle-class is decaying, and as a conscious entity the working-class does not exist." The very creation of abstract art was the artist'...
In the winter of 1947-1948, Motherwell and Rosenberg published the first (and only) issue of Possibilities: An Occasional Review. Their intention was to create an open-ended investigation into what constituted artistic "practice", and the political/academic arena in which it existed. Their philosophy was, in a sense, an anti-philosophy (much in the...
There are echoes of both Rosenberg and Greenberg in Motherwell's writing. While he shared Rosenberg's idea of - and in his own art was even a prime example of - Action Painting, he also shared Greenberg's idea - albeit to a lesser extent - of using painting as a pure medium. "Painting is a medium in which the mind can actualize itself; it is a medi...
Learn about Robert Motherwell, a key figure of Abstract Expressionism who explored themes of repression, revolution and modernism in his paintings, prints and collages. See examples of his works, such as Elegy to the Spanish Republic, Je t'aime and Tobacco Roth-Handle.
- American
- January 24, 1915
- Aberdeen, Washington
- July 16, 1991
Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.
Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American painter, printmaker, and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also included. Robert Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington on January 24, 1915, the first child of Robert Burns Motherwell II and Margaret Hogan Motherwell.
- American
- January 24, 1915
- Aberdeen, Washington, United States
- July 16, 1991
Robert Motherwell (born Jan. 24, 1915, Aberdeen, Wash., U.S.—died July 16, 1991, Provincetown, Mass.) was an American painter, one of the founders and principal exponents of Abstract Expressionism (q.v.), who was among the first American artists to cultivate accidental elements in his work.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Robert Motherwell was an American Abstract Expressionist painter influenced by Surrealism. Learn about his life, works, and legacy on Artnet, a platform for buying and selling art.
Biography. Painter, printer, collage maker and author. A leading Abstract Expressionist, in 1949 he began his most famous series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic, which is comprised of more than 100 oil paintings and numerous sketches and drawings. He was editor of the important book series Documents of Modern Art.
