Robert Burns Motherwell III (Father: Robert Burns Motherwell II, a bank president; Mother: Margaret Hogan Motherwell; Spouse: Helen Frankenthaler [among four marriages]; Daughters: Jeannie and Lise)
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) was a titan of the American Abstract Expressionist movement and perhaps its most intellectually rigorous member. Often described as the “leading spokesman” for the New York School, he was unique among his peers for his deep formal education in philosophy and art history.
Raised in San Francisco, Motherwell studied at Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia. It was at Columbia that the legendary art historian Meyer Schapiro encouraged him to abandon his PhD and dedicate himself to painting. Schapiro introduced him to a group of exiled European Surrealists in New York, including Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp. From them, Motherwell adopted the concept of Psychic Automatism—the process of drawing from the subconscious—which became the foundation of his artistic practice.
He is most famous for his monumental series, Elegies to the Spanish Republic, consisting of over 150 paintings created between 1948 and 1967. These works are characterized by massive, heavy black ovals and vertical bands set against white or ochre backgrounds, serving as “general metaphors of the contrast between life and death.”
In the late 1960s, Motherwell shifted his focus toward his Open series—minimalist, atmospheric canvases featuring simple charcoal lines that suggested windows or portals, reflecting his interest in Zen Buddhism and spatial harmony. Beyond the canvas, he was a master of collage, incorporating items from his daily life like cigarette packets and wine labels into sophisticated, structured compositions.
As a teacher (at Black Mountain College and Hunter College) and the editor of the influential series The Documents of Modern Art, Motherwell did more than just create art; he provided the intellectual framework that allowed the world to understand and appreciate the radical shift toward abstraction in the mid-20th century.
Active in others filds : Art Theory (Author/Editor), Art Education, Printmaking, Philosophy.
