b. Aberdeen, Washington 1915

d. Provincetown, Massachusetts 1991

Robert Motherwell is considered one of the great American Abstract Expressionist painters, alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. His esteemed intellect not only undergirded his gorgeous, expressive paintings - frequently featuring bold black shapes against fields of color - but also made Motherwell one of the leading writers, theorists, and advocates of the New York School. The artist, due to his close friendships with the European Surrealists and other intellectuals, served as a vital link between the pre-war avant-garde in Europe and its post-war counterpart in New York, establishing automatism and psychoanalysis as central concerns of American abstraction.

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