ARTISTS
Robert Motherwell: Collages
Andrea Rosen Gallery is pleased to present an intimate exhibition of significant collage works by Robert Motherwell spanning the most prolific period of the artist鈥檚 collage practice from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. It is a particularly apt time to examine this body of work as there has been increased in depth attention on the artist with the concurrent Elegy exhibition at Dominique Levy Gallery, and earlier this year the Lyric Suite drawing exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Opens painting exhibition at Andrea Rosen Gallery.
The practice of collage was one that Motherwell visited often throughout his career, and is reflective of the evolution of Motherwell鈥檚 oeuvre, from the emotionally charged expressionistic collages of the 1940s to the serene and minimal compositions of the 1970s, as well as the artist鈥檚 dichotomous relationship with automatism and formalism. The collages are often credited as the conduit of experimentation that led to the most famous series of his painting career, the Elegies and Opens, and the bounty of his printmaking practice later in his career. Beyond their generative practicality, the collages gave Motherwell a different mode of expression, one that was far more intimate, playful, and autobiographical. Using elements from the tangible world such a artists鈥� materials, travel ephemera, tobacco and wine labels allowed Motherwell to construct a narrative for the viewer while still maintaining his automatic and gestural style of painting.
Motherwell famously said that he considered collage the greatest creative innovation of the 20th century, reflective of the disjointedness of the modern industrial era. This body of work functions as a bridge between his Dada and Cubist predecessors, whom he idolized and paid homage to through the cultural allusions of his materials, and his Pop and Minimalist contemporaries exploring the ideas of seriality and commercialization. The artistic concepts these collages pioneered, particularly the reclamation of images with personal and popular implication continue to be employed by artists working well into the 21st century using new technologies.
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Andrea Rosen Gallery is pleased to present an intimate exhibition of significant collage works by Robert Motherwell spanning the most prolific period of the artist鈥檚 collage practice from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. It is a particularly apt time to examine this body of work as there has been increased in depth attention on the artist with the concurrent Elegy exhibition at Dominique Levy Gallery, and earlier this year the Lyric Suite drawing exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Opens painting exhibition at Andrea Rosen Gallery.
The practice of collage was one that Motherwell visited often throughout his career, and is reflective of the evolution of Motherwell鈥檚 oeuvre, from the emotionally charged expressionistic collages of the 1940s to the serene and minimal compositions of the 1970s, as well as the artist鈥檚 dichotomous relationship with automatism and formalism. The collages are often credited as the conduit of experimentation that led to the most famous series of his painting career, the Elegies and Opens, and the bounty of his printmaking practice later in his career. Beyond their generative practicality, the collages gave Motherwell a different mode of expression, one that was far more intimate, playful, and autobiographical. Using elements from the tangible world such a artists鈥� materials, travel ephemera, tobacco and wine labels allowed Motherwell to construct a narrative for the viewer while still maintaining his automatic and gestural style of painting.
Motherwell famously said that he considered collage the greatest creative innovation of the 20th century, reflective of the disjointedness of the modern industrial era. This body of work functions as a bridge between his Dada and Cubist predecessors, whom he idolized and paid homage to through the cultural allusions of his materials, and his Pop and Minimalist contemporaries exploring the ideas of seriality and commercialization. The artistic concepts these collages pioneered, particularly the reclamation of images with personal and popular implication continue to be employed by artists working well into the 21st century using new technologies.
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