Artist: Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991) Title: Africa Suite, Number 10 Audio: Date: 1970 Dimensions: 40 3/4″ x 28 1/4″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Screenprint, works on paper Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Dedalus Foundation and VAGA (Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.) Description: By the 1950’s Motherwell had moved away from automatism and toward spontaneous brushwork and bold, simple forms inspired by Chinese and Japanese brush painting. Motherwell said that “abstract rhythms, immediately felt, could be an expression of the inner self.” Black and white are the predominant colors in many of Motherwell’s works; he said, “Black is death, anxiety; white is life . . .” In Motherwell’s works, these colors also evoke printed words, symbols, brilliant shadows, and the extremes of darkness and light. Related Websites– Robert Motherwell at PBS– Robert Motherwell at Guggenheim Collection– Robert Motherwell at MoMA Suggested Readings– Engberg, Siri. Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991: Catalogue Raisonné, 2003. Call Number: NE539 .M67 A4 2003– Motherwell, Robert. The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell, 1999. Call Number: ND237.M852 A35 1999
Robert Motherwell
Artist: Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991) Title: Africa Suite Number 7 Audio: Date: 1970 Dimensions: 40 3/4″ x 28 1/4″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Screenprint works on paper Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Dedalus Foundation and VAGA (Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.) Description: Motherwell’s goal was to depict not a physical experience but rather his reaction to it. He was strongly influenced by the Surrealist technique of automatism, in which an artist allows his hand to move freely, thereby revealing forms that arise from the thoughts and feelings of the unconscious mind. Motherwell successfully used this technique to develop his own visual vocabulary. Related Websites– Robert Motherwell at PBS– Robert Motherwell at Guggenheim Collection– Robert Motherwell at MoMA Suggested Readings– Engberg, Siri. Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991: Catalogue Raisonné, 2003. Call Number: NE539 .M67 A4 2003– Motherwell, Robert. The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell, 1999. Call Number: ND237.M852 A35 1999
Artist: Robert Motherwelll (American, 1915-1991) Title: London Series II: Untitled Audio: Date: 1971 Dimensions: 28 1/2″ x 41″ Location in Library: Fourth floor Media: Screenprint works on paper Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Dedalus Foundation and VAGA (Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.) Description: This series of screenprints, produced in London, explores variations on the artist’s Open series of paintings. The spare and elegant Open paintings incorporated “window” images within the larger painted fields of the canvases. About these paintings, Motherwell wrote, “The Open contain a subtle but real reference to one of the most classical themes of modern art: that of the window.” Related Websites– Robert Motherwell at PBS– Robert Motherwell at Guggenheim Collection– Robert Motherwell at MoMA Suggested Readings– Engberg, Siri. Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991: Catalogue Raisonné, 2003.Call Number: NE539 .M67 A4 2003– Motherwell, Robert. The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell, 1999.Call Number: ND237.M852 A35 1999
