Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an Abstract Expressionist painter. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he was the youngest of "the New York School" (he coined the term), which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston.
Motherwell came to the abstract expressionist scene from an interesting vector; he did a BA in philosophy at Stanford (1937), and then completed one year of a philosophy Ph.D. at Harvard before shifting fields to art and art history, which he studied with Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University. His rigorous background in rhetoric would serve him and the abstract expressionists well, as he was able to tour the country giving speeches that articulated to the public what it was that he and his friends were doing in New York. Without his tireless devotion to communication (in addition to his prolific painting), well-known abstract expressionists like Rothko, who was extremely shy and rarely left his studio, might not have made it into the public eye. Motherwell's collected writings are a truly exceptional window into the Abstract Expressionist world. He was a lucid and engaging writer — his essays are a great bridge for those who want to learn more about the evolution of non representational art but who are put off by overly dense art criticism.
Motherwell's greatest goal was to use the staging of his work to convey to the viewer the mental and physical engagement of the artist with the canvas. He preferred using the starkness of black acrylic paint as one of the basic elements of his paintings. One of his more well-known techniques involved diluting his paint with turpentine to create a shadow effect.
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth houses the largest collection of Motherwell's works. The Walker Art Center also has a nearly complete collection of his prints.
External links
