Robert Motherwell
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Biography
Robert Motherwell was a major figure in the birth and development of Abstract Expressionism and the youngest member of the New York School - a term he coined - which brought him close to Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. A passionate advocate and articulate spokesman for Abstract Expressionism, he believed that ideas and emotions were best communicated through the bold forms and gestural lines of abstract art. He studied Philosophy at Stanford University and Art History at Columbia University under the art historian Meyer Shapiro and obtained a doctorate from Harvard. In the 1940s and 1950s, he lectured at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he taught notable artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. He later taught at Hunter College in New York.
During his five decade long career, Motherwell produced several large series, including Elegies to the Spanish Republic, Beside the Sea, the Lyric Suite, and Open. His work often contemplates complex topics through an intuitive artistic approach, resulting in an emotional and ephemeral evocation rather than a literal depiction for viewers to interpret themselves.
Motherwell founded the Dedalus Foundation in 1981 in order to foster public understanding of modern art and Modernism. He has exhibited worldwide, and his work can be found in the collections of major art institutions including Tate in London; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice; the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art in New York; the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
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Robert Motherwell, Red, White, and Blue No. 2, 1967. Acrylic and pasted paper on paper, 21.6 x 17.8 cm (8 1/2 x 7 in). -
Selected Exhibitions
1946 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1951 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1962 Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1963 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1965 Museum of Modern Art, New York, major retrospective exhibition. Travels in 1966 to Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1967 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1968 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1968 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1969 Robert Motherwell: Lyric Suite, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1969 Paintings and Collages by Robert Motherwell, The Toledo Museum of Art, OH
1972 Robert Motherwell: Recent Paintings, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1972 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
1973 Robert Motherwell: Recent Work, The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
1975 Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
1975 Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX
1976 Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts, Vienna, Austria
1977 Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1978 Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
1978 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
1979 The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, CT
1979 Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, KS
1980 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1983 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1983 Bavarian State Museum of Modern Art, Munich, Germany
1983 Visual Arts Museum, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1984 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
1985 Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX
1985 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1986 Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain
1987 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1989 Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
1991 Robert Motherwell: The Open Door, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; tours to Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
1991 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1992 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1994 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
1996 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
1996 Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
1996 Robert Motherwell, Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona, Spain; travels to Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
1997 Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
1998 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
1998 The Modern at Sundance Square, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
1999 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
2000 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2003 Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
2003 Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2004 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
2004 Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
2006 Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
2008 Robert Motherwell, Five Great Opens, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2008 Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino, Mexico City, Mexico
2009 Robert Motherwell: Open, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2009 Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
2011 Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2011 Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2012 Robert Motherwell: Prints from the Artist's Studio, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2013 Robert Motherwell: Collage, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2013 Guggenheim Museum, Venice, Italy
2013 Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
2014 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
2015 Robert Motherwell: Black, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2015 Robert Motherwell: A Centenary Survey of Major Works Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2015 Motherwell: Lyric Suite, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2015 Between Life and Death: Robert Motherwell's Elegies in Bay Area Collections, The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2016 Robert Motherwell: Abstract Expressionism, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2017 Matisse and American Art Group Show, The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
2017 Robert Motherwell: The Quiet + The Wild, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, NC
2017 Pollock and Motherwell: Legends of Abstract Expressionism, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, KS
2019 Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
2019 Some of the artists I have worked for, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2023 Robert Motherwell: Prints, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2023 Robert Motherwell: Collages and Works on Paper, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2023 Robert Motherwell: Paintings,Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2025 Summer Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
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Works
Robert Motherwell
The Berggruen Series: Untitled, 1980Lithograph on white Arches Cover paper40 x 42.2 cms (15 3/4 x 16 5/8 ins)Edition of 100Signed 'Motherwell' in pencil lower rightAll prints come with a certificate of authenticity issued by the gallery.All prints come with a certificate of authenticity issued by the gallery.Exhibitions
Robert Motherwell: A Survey of Prints, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 17 January - 7 March 2020
Literature
Siri Engberg and Joan Banach, Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991 (New York: Walker Art Center and Hudson Hills Press, 2003), Catalogue raisonné, ill. pl.377.
Exhibitions
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Robert Motherwell: A Survey of Prints
17 January - 29 February 2020Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of prints by the American Abstract Expressionist artist Robert Motherwell. The exhibition will be the most comprehensive show of his editioned... -
Prints I wish I had published
11 January - 9 February 2019In 1969 Bernard Jacobson opened his first London gallery – a fourth-floor walk-up on Mount Street, Mayfair, dealing in prints by international stars, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, as... -
Some of the artists I have worked for
10 September - 5 October 2019To end the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the gallery, we are delighted to introduce a selection of works by the artists that helped shaping its success. -
Robert Motherwell: Abstract Expressionism
15 September - 26 November 2016Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to announce Robert Motherwell: Abstract Expressionism. The exhibition will be an opportunity to investigate the various forms of abstract expressionist art from Motherwell’s long and... -
Robert Motherwell: A Centenary Survey of Major Works
24 January - 25 April 2015To mark the centenary of Robert Motherwell’s birth on 24th January 1915, the Bernard Jacobson Gallery will inaugurate its new space in Duke Street St James’s, London, with an exhibition... -
Robert Motherwell: Collages
5 June - 28 August 2013 -
Robert Motherwell: Prints from the Artist's Studio
12 September - 6 October 2012Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of limited edition prints by the American artist Robert Motherwell. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Motherwell produced a remarkable body... -
Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper
11 October - 26 November 2011Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper, the first ever exhibition dedicated to drawings and paintings on paper by Robert Motherwell to be held in Britain, will be staged at the Bernard... -
Robert Motherwell: Five Great Opens
15 October - 22 November 2008From 15th October, Bernard Jacobson Gallery will stage the most significant exhibition of Robert Motherwell's work in England since his 1978 Royal Academy retrospective, organised by Norman Rosenthal. The show... -
Robert Motherwell: Prints
11 May - 3 June 2023Bernard Jacobson Gallery presents a three-part showcase of works by American artist Robert Motherwell (1915-1991). This opening exhibition displays a selection of etchings, lithographs and screen prints. -
Robert Motherwell: Collages and Works on Paper
8 - 24 June 2023 -
Robert Motherwell: Paintings
29 June - 23 September 2023 -
Robert Motherwell: Open
17 June - 18 August 2009Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to present a selection of major works from Robert Motherwell's Open series. The exhibition is timed to correspond with the release of a seminal book... -
Bonheur de Vivre
18 March - 27 May 2016Bonheur de Vivre is the result of long-held desire by Bernard Jacobson to present work by some of the great artists who have particularly inspired and sustained his own love...
Art Fairs
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The Armory Show
8 - 11 March 2012 -
Art Basel | Hong Kong
17 - 20 May 2012 -
Art Basel | Basel
14 - 17 June 2012 -
Frieze Masters
17 - 20 October 2013 -
IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair
4 - 8 November 2015 -
London Original Print Fair
5 - 8 May 2016View Artsy Fair Booth -
EXPO CHICAGO
20 - 23 September 2012 -
Draw Art Fair London
17 - 19 May 2019View Artsy Fair Booth
Publications
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Bonheur de Vivre
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Some of the artists I have worked for
Published on occasion of the homonymous exhibition held at Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 10 September - 5 October 2019 -
Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant
Robert Motherwell, who died in 1991, was the youngest member of the first wave of Abstract Expressionists known as the New York School (a phrase he coined), which also included... -
Robert Motherwell: Collage
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Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper
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Robert Motherwell: Open
