Robert Motherwell - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, November 14, 2018 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Tirca Karlis Gallery, Provincetown
    Ansel Gladstein, Fairfield (acquired in 1973)
    Sotheby's, New York, March 9, 2012, lot 156
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    Washington, D.C., Fendrick Gallery, Robert Motherwell, November 8 - December 9, 1972
    Provincetown, Tirca Karlis Gallery, Robert Motherwell: Recent Sketches and Graphics, August 3-9, 1973

  • Literature

    Jack Flam, Katy Rogers and Tim Clifford, eds., Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941-1991, Volume 3, Collages and Paintings on Paper and Paperboard, New Haven, 2012, no. W327, p. 535 (illustrated)

  • 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.

    View More Works

194

I.H. Series No. 26

signed "Motherwell" lower left
acrylic, ink and lithograph on paper
22 x 17 in. (55.9 x 43.2 cm.)
Executed in 1970.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $75,000

Contact Specialist
John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261
jmccord@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 14 November 2018