ART CITIES:N.York-Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell was a noted figure of the New York School, largely thanks to his role bringing “Automatic” drawing, a concept he had picked up from the Surrealists on his travels to Europe, to the attention of his peers. Painterly free association, coupled with existentialism, were the linchpins of Abstract Expressionism, though Motherwell’s work was defined by formal stylishness, also he was unique in this group for his extensive writings on art as well as his prolific printmaking.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Dominique Lévy Gallery Archive

The exhibition “Robert Motherwell: Elegy to the Spanish Republic”, celebrates the centenary of the artist’s birth and fills Dominique Lévy Gallery with 18 works spanning the years 1954-1989. These range from small-scale studies as “Mural Sketch (Study for Elegy to the Spanish Republic 100)” and “Study for State II (Elegy No. 100)” both of which were made in advance of one of the artist’s largest paintings to monumental canvasesas “Elegy for the Spanish Republic XXXV”. The exhibition offers a fresh survey of the monumental series that marked a pivotal moment in the history of modern art. Begun in 1948, Motherwell’s Elegies functioned as the artist’s memorial to the Spanish Civil War, an event that had come to symbolize for him the human tragedies of oppression and injustice. What exactly those forms are intended to mean, though, has been the subject of great debate. Some compare them to architecture, or to ancient monuments, while others read them as phalluses and wombs, which, along with the pictures’ somber palette, might suggest the cycle of life and death. The artist also described them as “General metaphors of the contrast between life anddeath, and their interrelation”. Returning again and again to this central preoccupation of his oeuvre over the course of decades, Motherwell would ultimately create 250 paintings and works on paper exploring the subject. The last work in the series, titled “Mourning Elegy”, was completed only months before his death in 1991. In their implicit references to politics, psychology, literature, and poetry, the Elegies constructed a bridge between Surrealism and the new style of painting emerging at the same time: Abstract Expressionism.

Info: Dominique Lévy Gallery, 909 Madison Avenue, New York, Duration: 4/11/15-9/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.dominique-levy.com