Robert Motherwell

Works of art

Robert Motherwell, "Mexican Night II", Belknap 318

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Mexican Night II"

Farbaquatintaradierung 1984

63,3 x 61 cm, Pr. 45 x 44,5 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 95 Exemplare

Belknap 318

[25118]

Robert Motherwell, "Harvest, with Blue Shadow", Belknap 125

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Harvest, with Blue Shadow"

aus "Summer Light Series"

Collage auf Farblithographie 1973

90,5 x 47 cm, Abb. 76,2 x 30,3 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 62 Exemplare

Belknap 125

[21480]

Robert Motherwell, "Harvest, with Two White Stripes", Belknap 126

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Harvest, with Two White Stripes"

aus "Summer Light Series"

Collage auf Farblithographie mit Pochoir in Weiß 1973

90 x 47 cm, Abb. 76,2 x 30,3 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 67 Exemplare

Belknap 126

[23128]

Robert Motherwell, "Harvest, with Orange Stripe", Belknap 127

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Harvest, with Orange Stripe"

aus "Summer Light Series"

Collage auf Farblithographie 1973

91,2 x 47,2 cm, Abb. 76 x 31 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 67 Exemplare

Belknap 127

[21481]

Robert Motherwell, "Harvest, in Scotland", Belknap 129

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Harvest, in Scotland"

aus "Summer Light Series"

Collage auf Farblithographie 1973

106,8 x 61 cm, Abb. 91,4 x 45,8 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 81 Exemplare

Belknap 129

[21479]

Robert Motherwell, "Primal Sign I", Belknap 223

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Primal Sign I"

Farbaquatintaradierung 1979-80

73 x 55 cm, Pr. 59,7 x 45,2; 25 cm

sign. bez.

Auflage ca. 75 Exemplare

Belknap 223

[22952]

Robert Motherwell, "America - La France Variations I", Belknap 297

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"America - La France Variations I"

Collage auf Farblithographie 1983-84

117,5 x 81,6 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 88 Exemplare

Belknap 297

[23129]

Robert Motherwell, "America - La France Variations IX", Belknap 305

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"America - La France Variations IX"

Collage auf Farblithographie 1983-84

73 x 55,3 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 78 Exemplare

Belknap 305

[22731]

Robert Motherwell, "Australian Stone", Belknap 314

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Australian Stone"

Farbaquatintaradierung mit Collage 1983-84

61 x 75,6 cm, Pr. 44,9 x 59,7 cm

sign. num. bez.

Auflage 67 Exemplare

Belknap 314

[22951]

Robert Motherwell, "Elegy Fragment II", Belknap 328

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Elegy Fragment II"

Farbaquatintaradierung 1985

87,5 x 61 cm, Pr. 59,5 x 37,5 cm

sign. dat. bez.

Auflage 69 Exemplare

Belknap 328

[21938]

Robert Motherwell, "Hades", Belknap 391

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Hades"

Kapitel 6 (Hades) aus "Ulysses" (James Joyce)

Radierung auf rotem Fond 1987-88

33 x 25,5 cm, Pr. 10,8 x 15,2 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 40 Exemplare

Belknap 391

[22894]

Robert Motherwell, "Sirens II", Belknap 383

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Sirens II"

Farbaquatintaradierung 1988

57 x 66 cm, Pr. 37,6 x 48,2 cm

sign. bez.

Auflage ca. 90 Exemplare

Belknap 383

[22953]

Robert Motherwell, "Beau Geste Suite", Belknap 417 - 422

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Beau Geste Suite"

Buch mit 6 Farblithographien und Gedichten von M.Pleynet 1989

73 x 52,5 cm x 3,5 cm

sign. num.

Auflage 153 Exemplare

Belknap 417 - 422

[21924]

Robert Motherwell, "Summer Sign", Belknap 430

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Summer Sign"

Farbcarborundumradierung 1990

64,2 x 79 cm, Pr. 45 x 59,7 cm

sign. num. bez.

Auflage 55 Exemplare

Belknap 430

[21939]

Robert Motherwell, ohne Titel, nicht mehr bei Belknap CR 516

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

ohne Titel

Farbaquatintaradierung 1991

51 x 57,5 cm, Pr. 28,5 x 36 cm

sign.

Auflage ca. 60 Exemplare

nicht mehr bei Belknap CR 516

[22956]

Robert Motherwell, "U.S. Art New York N.Y.", Flam | Rogers | Clifford 132

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"U.S. Art New York N.Y."

Öl und Collage auf Papier 1962

73,7 x 58,4 cm

sign.

Flam | Rogers | Clifford 132

[23212]

Robert Motherwell, "Country Life", Flam | Rogers | Clifford 188

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"Country Life"

Acryl, Bleistift und Collage auf Papier 1967

77,5 x 56,5 cm

sign.

Flam | Rogers | Clifford 188

[23208]

Robert Motherwell, "French Revolution Bicentennial No. 5", Flam | Rogers | Clifford 754

Robert Motherwell

(Aberdeen/USA 1915 - 1991 Provincetown)

"French Revolution Bicentennial No. 5"

Acryl, Lack und Collage auf Papier 1987

25,4 x 35,6 cm

sign.

Flam | Rogers | Clifford 754

[23213]


Biography

Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell (Aberdeen, Washington 1915–1991 Provincetown, Massachusetts) is one of the most important representatives of Abstract Expressionism, the chapter of international art history developed and determined by America. In addition to Robert Motherwell, the most important protagonists of the movement include Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko.

Motherwell’s list of international exhibitions is impressive. His work was, however, rarely shown in Germany. His first appearance in Germany took place in 1954 as part of a group exhibition at the Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen. In 1959 and 1964, his works are shown at the second and third editions of the documenta. In 1965, the retrospective organised by The Museum of Modern Art in New York travelled on to the Folkwang Museum in Essen. In 1976, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the USA, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf exhibited works by Motherwell spanning more thirty years. In 1982, the Haus der Kunst in Munich showed his works as part of the exhibition American Painting 1930–1980, and the Bayerische Staatsgalerie für moderne Kunst inaugurated a permanent exhibition space for his works. In 2004, exactly fifty years after his works were shown there for the first time, the Museum Morsbroich dedicated a large survey exhibition to him.

Already as a child, Motherwell wanted to become an artist but followed the wishes of his father, a banker, and initially studied Philosophy and French Literature at Stanford and Harvard, among other places. After a two-year stay in Paris from 1938 to 1939, where he made friends with European artists who would later go into in exile, he studied Art History at Columbia University in New York. Knowledge was always important to him. With the series Documents of Modern Art, published from 1944 to 1960, he created an important reference work on modern art.

From the late 1940s onwards, the aspirations of American artists to liberate themselves from European influences and to create their own internationally recognised art movement began to emerge among the Abstract Expressionists in the increasing tendency of an imagery liberated from any representational depiction. The exhibition The New American Painting was ground-breaking for the international recognition of American painting as a significant artistic phenomenon in its own right. In 1958/59, it was presented in Basel, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London, and as a highlight at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Motherwell found his very own, Abstract Expressionist pictorial solutions in the greatest possible intensity of colour and signification, uniting in them the knowledge of art. ‘Every intelligent painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head’, he once remarked. His artistic works initially elude verbalisation. At first glance, the signs and areas of colour do not embody anything representational; they do not superficially represent any apparent object. And yet it is the ‘familiar things that belong to [his] life’ that can be seen: the ochre of the earth, the green of the grass, the blue of the sky and the sea, the labels of ‘Gauloises’, ‘Players’ and ‘Ernte 23’: ‘sometimes I smoke them...’


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