American, 1915–1991
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Elegy to the Spanish Republic #173
acrylic on canvas, 1990
50 x 60 inches
Museum purchase and Gift of the Dedalus Foundation, 1997.103
acrylic on canvas, 1990
50 x 60 inches
Museum purchase and Gift of the Dedalus Foundation, 1997.103
ARTIST INFO
Motherwell began his career by studying art criticism and philosophy in Los Angeles and San Francisco before entering Harvard in 1937. He combined graduate studies in philosophy at Harvard with courses in art history at Columbia University in New York, and made a number of trips to Europe. At Columbia, his professor Meyer Shapiro convinced him to switch from art history to painting, but he remained deeply committed to philosophy and art criticism throughout his life.
In New York, Motherwell met a number of European Surrealists in exile and adopted their idea of automatic writing or "doodling" as a means of tapping into the subconscious. Motherwell also experimented with another Surrealist technique, collage, becoming a master of the medium. He was accomplished enough to catch the eye of Peggy Guggenheim, who gave him an exhibition at her Art of This Century Gallery in New York in 1944
.In the 1950s he began his most well-known series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic, inspired by his reaction to the Spanish Civil War. For Motherwell, the essence of art was about reordering the world and evoking emotion through color, shape, and form.
In New York, Motherwell met a number of European Surrealists in exile and adopted their idea of automatic writing or "doodling" as a means of tapping into the subconscious. Motherwell also experimented with another Surrealist technique, collage, becoming a master of the medium. He was accomplished enough to catch the eye of Peggy Guggenheim, who gave him an exhibition at her Art of This Century Gallery in New York in 1944
.In the 1950s he began his most well-known series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic, inspired by his reaction to the Spanish Civil War. For Motherwell, the essence of art was about reordering the world and evoking emotion through color, shape, and form.
