(Audio Commentary)

Robert Motherwell

American (Aberdeen, W.Va., 1915-1991, Provincetown, Mass.)

untitled

screenprint on chine colle

1982.001.031

Robert Motherwell was an abstract expressionist, the group of painters who rejected realism, adopted concepts from European surrealism and forged a body of work so revolutionary that it shifted the center of modern art from Paris to New York. A student of philosophy and a thoughtful writer, Motherwell became spokesman for the movement. For AbEx painters, art was the visualization of eternal and primal forces and essences. Motherwell strived for monumentality and a sense of weight and permanence in his work. In this piece, he marries a looming shape and its shadow with delicate, seemingly accidental gestures.