Download - Robert motherwell art salon march 2013
Robert Motherwell
Artist, Writer and Intellectual
Saturday, March 23, 13
Early Years
• A local
• Developed a love for big skies and bold colors
• A philosopher
• Travels
• $50 a week for life
Saturday, March 23, 13
WWII
• Prior, US art based in realism, impressionism and early abstract movements
• European artists took refuge in the US, including the Surrealists
• Brought a great renaissance of ideas to US
Saturday, March 23, 13
The Surrealists
Saturday, March 23, 13
What Were They About?
• Fantastic imagery; elements of surprise, spontaniety and juxtaposition
• Highly pyschological and dreamlike
• Expressing the subconscious
• Automatism
Saturday, March 23, 13
Robert Motherwell
• Highly educated, innovative and respected
• The New York School
• Youngest member
• WPA connection
• A cultural translator
• 1944 - Art of this Century Solo exhibition
Saturday, March 23, 13
Abstract Impressionism
• Large-scale and explosive gestures; “action painting”
• Intended to convey feeling and emotion
• Desire to give spontaneous expression to the unconscious
• Getting at a fundamental, unconscious truth
New York replaced Paris as center of the art world
Saturday, March 23, 13
Elegies to the Spanish Republic
Saturday, March 23, 13
At Five in the Afternoon
Saturday, March 23, 13
The Voyage
Saturday, March 23, 13
Malaga
Saturday, March 23, 13
Catalonia
Saturday, March 23, 13
Kootz Gallery Show
• 1950
• Common shapes and forms
• Spanish paintings under common name
• Art Digest: one of today’s most thinking painters
Saturday, March 23, 13
At Five in the Afternoon 1950
Saturday, March 23, 13
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No 34
Saturday, March 23, 13
Elegy to the Spanish Republic 108
Saturday, March 23, 13
Catalan Elegy
Saturday, March 23, 13
An Homage
Saturday, March 23, 13
I’ve made pictures that are failures but few that are lies
Video 10:04 to11:53
Saturday, March 23, 13
Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011)
Married to Motherwell 1958-1971
Saturday, March 23, 13
Mountains and Sea
Saturday, March 23, 13
Two Figures No 2
Saturday, March 23, 13
Lyric Suite 1965
• Lifelong love of paper
• 560 ink drawings meant to be 1000
• Based on Alban Berg’s string quartet
Saturday, March 23, 13
Saturday, March 23, 13
The Open Series
Saturday, March 23, 13
Open No 151
Saturday, March 23, 13
In Ochre with Scarlet Spot
Saturday, March 23, 13
Hollow Men
Saturday, March 23, 13
If you know what it’s going to look like, why bother making it?
Stanley William Hayter
Saturday, March 23, 13
Armory Show
1913
Vietnam War Ends
1975
Born1915
Emergence of Pop Art
1960s
Motherwell begins
Elegy series
1948
Max Ernst Paints
“Bride”
1938
Surrealist Manifesto Published
1924
Marries Frankenthaler
1958WWII Ends
1945Stock
Market Crash
1929WWI Ends
1918
Begins Open Series
1968
Dies
1991Robert Motherwell
Timeline
Saturday, March 23, 13
Influence of Bold Color
Saturday, March 23, 13
Influence of Collage
Saturday, March 23, 13
At Auction
Sold for $2.1M in 2005
Sold for $3.6M in 2012Saturday, March 23, 13
SF MOMA
Saturday, March 23, 13
Fine Arts Museums of SF
• Collection search tool unusable
• ~40 works in collection
• Achenbach Foundation for the graphic arts
• Very few on display
What is a museum’s obligation to exhibit?
Saturday, March 23, 13
Saturday, March 23, 13