We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Learning together
Headpiece filled with straw
T.S. Elliot, excerpt from The Hollow Men, 1925
Robert Motherwell's Untitled is an exquisite drawing that was gifted directly by the artist to Dore Ashton (1928-2017), the noted art historian and critic behind some of the earliest and most insightful histories of The New York School. Executed in 1984, it relates to the Hollow Men series, the last body of work that would occupy the artist before his passing in 1991 and was titled in reference to T.S. Elliot's eponymous poem. As such, Untitled is testament to the deep friendship between Motherwell and Ashton, kindred spirits and intellectuals who shared a keen interest in and knowledge of literature and philosophy.
Dore Ashton.
Born in 1928, Ashton was a generation apart from such influential (male) critics as Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg and paved a distinct path for herself as a reviewer for noted publications such as Art International, The Art Bulletin and The New York Times. Known for her razor-sharp writing, Dore Ashton notably was one of the key critics who lived and breathed the very art scene she was observing. She wrote extensively on Motherwell, offering key insights into his practice. As she beautifully wrote of the immediacy of the artist's drawings, "...he defines drawing as 'a racing yacht, cutting through the ocean,' while 'painting is the ocean itself...'" (Dore Ashton, The Writings of Robert Motherwell, Berkeley, 2007).
A trusted champion of artists such as Motherwell, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, Ashton not only recorded, but also inhabited the scene: she not only visited artists in their studios, but was a part of their circle drinking and talking in their Downtown New York haunts. While Ashton would come to pen remarkable studies on individual artists such as Philip Guston, Mark Rothko and Joseph Cornell, she is perhaps best known for her landmark publications The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning that was published in 1973. Including first-hand accounts of her own interactions with the artists and critics consituting the movement of Abstract Expressionism, Ashton's book eloquently provided a coherent philosophical framework.