Robert Motherwell - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, December 11, 2013 | Phillips

Evening & Day Editions

London 12 December 2013 2pm & 6pm

  • Literature

    Siri Engberg and Joan Banach 446-467

  • Catalogue Essay

    "Each picture is only an approximation of what you want. That's the beauty of being an artist; you can never make the absolute statement but the desire to do so as an approximation keeps you going."
    Robert Motherwell

  • 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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25

Robert Motherwell

Ulysses (additional suite of etchings)

1988
The complete additional suite of 22 etchings (20 in colours), on torn Johannot paper, with full margins, with original title page,
36 x 28 x 5 cm (14 1/8 x 11 x 1 7/8 in.)
all signed with initials, and numbered 8/40 in pencil, also numbered in pencil on the title page (there were also 10 hors commerce impressions), published by Arion Press, San Francisco, all in excellent condition, the suite in orginal individual paper folders and contained in original blue silk-covered box with accompanying edition information.

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 ‡

Sold for £12,500

Contact Specialist
Robert Kennan
Editions, London
rkennan@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4075

Evening & Day Editions

London 12 December 2013 2pm & 6pm