Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A new definitive overview of the founding Abstract Expressionist celebrated for his Elegies to the Spanish Republic

Famously the most politicized and intellectual of the Abstract Expressionists, Robert Motherwell (1915-91) evolved a form of austere gesturalism reflective of both the human psyche and the political realm. Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting offers an in-depth exploration of his oeuvre--the first publication to do so in many years. Leading art scholars Jennifer Cohen, Susan Davidson, Simon Kelly, Monica McTighe and Sarah Rich examine Motherwell's turn from Surrealism to abstraction and consider the major series that developed over his 50-year career. The catalog also studies the dialogue between Motherwell's art and the 19th-century French painting tradition, and investigates his relationship to Spanish painting techniques and processes, with an emphasis on underlying political significance of this relationship (as expressed in his great series Elegies to the Spanish Republic). Another section looks at Motherwell's unique use of ocher pigment, with its evocation of deep geological time and of avant-garde strategies.

Review Quotes

In addition to the visual excitement and pleasure provoked by this exhibition, the works on display also demonstrate that Motherwell absorbed both instinct and intellect in his early formation, and his varied calibrations of the balances between them provided an endless stream of rich resources that fed his remarkable artistic journey.--Phong Bui "Brooklyn Rail"

This catalog ventures into the captivating interplay between Motherwell's oeuvre and the venerable 19th-century French painting tradition, unraveling the intricate threads of his artistic kinship with Spanish painting techniques and methodologies.--Ghalib Dhalla "Indulge"