Robert Motherwell - New Now New York Wednesday, March 9, 2022 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Dedalus Foundation, New York (1991)
    The Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis (acquired from the above)
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin Museum of Art; Iowa City, University of Iowa Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Fine Arts; Portland, Reed College, Robert Motherwell: Works on Paper, March 9–September 15, 1970, no. 20
    San Francisco, John Berggruen Gallery, Robert Motherwell: Paintings, Collages & Drawings, March 28–May 5, 1973, no. 20
    Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, Robert Motherwell: Retrospectiva del gran pintor Norteamericano, March 19–May 1975, no. 27
    London, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Robert Motherwell: Collage, June 5–July 27, 2013, no. 8, p. 42 (illustrated)
    Brooklyn, The Gallery at Industry City, Motherwell as Printmaker: The Artist at Work, April 16–May 16, 2015, no. 42
    St. Louis, The Greenberg Gallery, Robert Motherwell: Paintings and Collages, October 15, 2015–January 15, 2016

  • Literature

    Jack Flam, Katy Rogers and Tim Clifford, eds., Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941–1991, vol. III, New Haven, 2012, p. 145 (illustrated)
    Jack Flam, Katy Rogers and Tim Clifford, eds., Motherwell: 100 Years, Milan, 2015, no. 102, pp. 96–97 (illustrated, p. 97)

  • Artist Biography

    Robert Motherwell

    American • 1915 - 1991

    One of the youngest proponents of the Abstract Expressionist movement, Robert Motherwell rose to critical acclaim with his first solo exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in 1944. Not only was Motherwell one of the major practicing Abstract Expressionist artists, he was, in fact, the main intellectual driving force within the movement—corralling fellow New York painters such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hoffman and William Baziotes into his circle. Motherwell later coined the term the "New York School", a designation synonymous to Abstract Expressionism that loosely refers to a wide variety of non-objective work produced in New York between 1940 and 1960.

    During an over five-decade-long career, Motherwell created a large and powerful body of varied work that includes paintings, drawings, prints and collages. Motherwell's work is most generally characterized by simple shapes, broad color contrasts and a dynamic interplay between restrained and gestural brushstrokes. Above all, it demonstrates his approach to art-making as a response to the complexity of lived, and importantly felt, experience.

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70

In Yellow Ochre with Two Blues

signed and dated "R Motherwell 68" upper left; titled "IN YELLOW OCHRE WITH TWO BLUES" on the strainer
acrylic and pasted papers on paper
30 1/2 x 22 in. (77.5 x 55.9 cm)
Executed in 1968.

Estimate
$50,000 - 70,000 

Contact Specialist

Avery Semjen

Head of Sale, New Now

212 940 1207

asemjen@phillips.com

New Now

New York Auction 9 March 2022