Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Jennifer Cohen, Susan Davidson, Simon Kelly, Monica McTighe, Sarah Rich.
Famously the most politicized and intellectual of the Abstract Expressionists, Robert Motherwell (1915–91) evolved a form of austere gesturalism reflective of both the human psyche and the political realm. Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting offers an in-depth exploration of his oeuvre—the first publication to do so in many years. Leading art scholars Jennifer Cohen, Susan Davidson, Simon Kelly, Monica McTighe and Sarah Rich examine Motherwell’s turn from Surrealism to abstraction and consider the major series that developed over his 50-year career. The catalog also studies the dialogue between Motherwell’s art and the 19th-century French painting tradition, and investigates his relationship to Spanish painting techniques and processes, with an emphasis on underlying political significance of this relationship (as expressed in his great series Elegies to the Spanish Republic). Another section looks at Motherwell’s unique use of ocher pigment, with its evocation of deep geological time and of avant-garde strategies.
Published by Dominique Lévy. Text by David Anfam, Barbara Guest, Federico García Lorca, Harold Rosenberg, John Yau.
Robert Motherwell (1915–91) came to abstraction not through painting, but through philosophy, poetry and art history. While studying at Stanford, he was introduced to modernism and symbolism; Mallarmé’s dictum, “To paint, not the thing, but the effect it provides,” would prove essential in Motherwell’s work. Elegy to the Spanish Republic is perhaps the most literal example of this influence. Begun in 1948, the series, comprising some 150 canvases, was the artist’s “funeral song for something once cared about” in abstract pictorial form. Exploring the inextricable links between poetry, politics, writing and painting revealed in the history of the series, this volume includes Harold Rosenberg’s “A Bird for Every Bird,” Federico García Lorca’s “Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías,” notes and writings by Motherwell on the Spanish Civil War, scholarly essays and rare archival material.
Published by Bernard Jacobson Gallery. By John E. Scofield.
In 1975, in the midst of a series of European retrospectives, Robert Motherwell (1915–91) hired a young man named John E. Scofield to be his first full-time studio assistant. Now, in honor of Motherwell’s centenary, Scofield—an artist and designer himself—has written a poignant and tender memoir which conveys the life and thought of a leader of the Abstract Expressionist school a generation ago. Intensely personal, the narrative brings the 1970s to life: Scofield writes of art, intellectual conversation, road trips and male bonding with affection and honesty. Robert Motherwell: In the Studio discusses the booze they preferred, the cars he drove, the artists he admired and the New York art scene that swirled around him. Well told and evocative, this page-turner offers a unique insight into a pivotal figure of American painting.
PUBLISHER Bernard Jacobson Gallery
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5.5 x 7.75 in. / 47 pgs / 10 color / 5 duotone.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/22/2016 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2016 p. 162
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781872784564TRADE List Price: $15.00 CDN $21.50 GBP £13.50
Published by Skira. By Jack Flam, Katy Rogers, Tim Clifford.
Published on the 100th anniversary of Robert Motherwell’s birth, this book presents a comprehensive view of his artistic achievement and historical importance. ?Each chapter focuses on an important aspect or phase of the artist’s life in relation to his art and explores the many ways in which his activities as an artist, writer, and theorist helped to shape American culture during the second half of the twentieth century. The book contains many unpublished documentary photographs and writings, as well as vivid color illustrations of many of Motherwell’s most significant works.
Jack Flam is President of the Dedalus Foundation and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of art and art history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and the author of numerous books, catalogs, and articles on various aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American art. Katy Rogers is the Director of the Robert Motherwell Catalogs Raisonné project, the Programs Director at the Dedalus Foundation, and the Manager of the Donald Judd Catalogue Raisonné Project. Tim Clifford is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and was Chief Researcher of the catalogue raisonné of Robert Motherwell’s paintings and collages.
Published by 21 Publishing Ltd. By Bernard Jacobson.
In Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant, published to coincide with Motherwell's centenary, author Bernard Jacobson examines Motherwell's art in the context of 20th-century American culture. America's music and literature were indigenous triumphs, while its art was slowly learning to become American. Imitation metamorphosed into resistance, soon to be named Abstract Expressionism. A painter, teacher and theorist, Motherwell had a slower-burning career than most of his colleagues, many of whom died young. He was always the intellectual, an Apollonian among Dionysians, and was able to create a considerable body of work that is only now, 25 years after his death, beginning to be unraveled, understood and fully appreciated. This biography, interspersed with illustrations, is an accessible introduction to Motherwell's legacy.
PUBLISHER 21 Publishing Ltd
BOOK FORMAT Clth, 7.75 x 9.5 in. / 120 pgs / 6 color / 3 duotone / 5 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 10/27/2015 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2016 p. 162
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781901785159TRADE List Price: $30.00 CDN $40.00
Published by Bernard Jacobson Gallery. Text by Mel Gooding.
A number of Robert Motherwell’s most important early works were collage-paintings, beginning with his first effort in the spring of 1943, “Pierrot’s Hat,” made while working alongside Jackson Pollock in the latter’s studio. “I took to collage like a duck to water,” Motherwell later reflected, and he continued to “play with papers” for the rest of his life, esteeming his skill in the medium as one of his “chief gifts.” Collage also helped the artist reconcile his relationship to European modernism (particularly Surrealism) on the one hand, and American Abstract Expressionism on the other. Reproducing a concise selection of collages from throughout the artist’s career in full color, this volume also includes a series of “case studies” on individual collages and broader essays by critic Mel Gooding that examine their composition, palette and literary allusions, and Motherwell’s unique position bridging Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
PUBLISHER Bernard Jacobson Gallery
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5 x 7.5 in. / 79 pgs / illustrated throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 7/31/2014 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2014 p. 148
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781872784533TRADE List Price: $16.95 CDN $24.00 GBP £14.99
Published by Bernard Jacobson Gallery. Text by Sam Cornish.
Robert Motherwell (1915–91) 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. His career spanned five decades during which time he created some of the most iconic images of the twentieth century. Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper was published to accompany an exhibition dedicated exclusively to the artist's works on paper. In his extensive essay, Sam Cornish discusses drawings from the Lyric Suite, a group of works from the Beside the Sea series and a selection of works based upon James Joyce's Ulysses. Further main themes in the artist's oeuvre are covered, from the 1940s to the 1980s, including Elegy and Je t'aime as well as automatism drawings and work from the Drunk with Turpentine, Gesture and Open series.
PUBLISHER Bernard Jacobson Gallery
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5.25 x 7.75 in. / 72 pgs / illustrated thorughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/31/2014 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2015 p. 153
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781872784496TRADE List Price: $16.95 CDN $24.00 GBP £14.99
Published by Guggenheim Museum Publications. Text by Susan Davidson, Megan Fontanella, Brandon Taylor, Jeffrey Warda.
Robert Motherwell: Early Collages, published to accompany an exhibition devoted exclusively to Motherwell’s works on paper from the 1940s and early 1950s, reexamines the origins of the artist’s style and his revelatory encounter with the papier collé technique that he described in 1944 as “the greatest of our discoveries.” Motherwell’s enthusiasm for and dedication to the collage medium for the remainder of his career sets him apart from other artists of his generation and extended beyond the mere physical presence of pasted cut-and-torn papers. Featuring approximately 60 works and four essays that delve into artists’ engagements with collage in the first half of the twentieth century, Motherwell’s early career with patron Peggy Guggenheim, underlying humanitarian themes during World War II and the artist’s materials, Early Collages provides a vital reassessment of Motherwell’s work in the collage medium. Robert Motherwell (1915–1991) studied painting at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, at Stanford, Harvard and Columbia. His first solo show was presented at the Raymond Duncan Gallery in Paris in 1939. In 1941, Motherwell traveled to Mexico with Roberto Matta. After returning to New York, his circle came to include William Baziotes, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann and Jackson Pollock. In 1944, Motherwell became editor of the Documents of Modern Art series of books, and participated in Fourteen Americans at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1946. The artist subsequently taught and lectured throughout the United States. A retrospective of his works organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, traveled throughout the United States from 1983 to 1985.
Published by 21 Publishing Ltd. Text by Matthew Collings, Mel Gooding, Robert Hobbs, Donald Kuspit, Robert S. Mattison, Saul Ostrow, John Yau.
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 Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman. An articulate writer, Motherwell was pegged early on as the intellectual of the group. Robert Motherwell: Open is the first examination of the painter's Open series, which preoccupied him from 1967 until the last years of his life. Pared down and minimal, these paintings differ greatly from his more dynamic and monumental Elegies series, for which he is perhaps best known. Containing many previously unpublished paintings as well as works in public collections, this monograph--the most comprehensive and best-illustrated book on Motherwell currently in print--introduces a series of texts by critics and art historians John Yau, Robert Hobbs, Matthew Collings, Donald Kuspit, Robert Mattison, Mel Gooding and Saul Ostrow.
PUBLISHER 21 Publishing Ltd
BOOK FORMAT Clth, 9.5 x 12 in. / 183 pgs / 98 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/30/2010 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2009 p. 98
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781901785128TRADE List Price: $65.00 CDN $75.00
Robert Motherwell: Elegy to the Spanish Republic
Robert Motherwell: In the Studio
Motherwell
Robert Motherwell: The Making of an American Giant
Robert Motherwell: Collage
Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper
Robert Motherwell: Early Collages
Robert Motherwell: Open