Robert Motherwell

name: America - La France Variations IX medium: Lithograph & Collage in Colors edition: 60 plus proofs year: 1984 signed: Lower Right in Pencil size: 28 7/8" x 22" frame:N/A reference:B. 305, E&B 337 asking price:$4,500 USD
name: St. Michael III medium: Lithograph and Screenprint edition: 99 year: 1979 signed: Lower Right size: 41" x 31.5" frame:N/A reference:N/A asking price:Price on Request
name: Primal Sign I medium: Aquatint, Etching on Paper edition: 60 plus proofs year: 1980 signed: Lower Right in Pencil size: 28 1/2" x 21 1/2" frame:N/A reference:E&B 256 or B 223 asking price:$5,000 USD

Biography

American (1915-1991)

Born in 1915, Robert Motherwell was an Abstract Expressionist, and also inspired by the surrealist movement. Influenced by philosophy, and the idea of the abstract as “peeling away the inessential to reveal the necessary;” when he found his interest in painting, he proceeded to apply this idea to his artworks.

Motherwell received his education from Stanford and Columbia for philosophy and art, respectively. His travels abroad during his studies brought him into contact with the Abstract Expressionists, whose members consisted of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. He also married Helen Frankenthaler, also an Abstract Expressionist.

Motherwell also had his first show in France during one of his stays abroad. This was closely followed by his first one-man show in New York, which took place in 1944; the Museum of Modern Art bought one of his pieces that same year.

Motherwell’s works can be distinguished oftentimes by his preference for the stark disparity between his colors and his canvas, like the contrast between black paint and white canvas. A goal of the Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists in their paintings was to “end up with a canvas no less beautiful than the empty canvas is to begin with.”