Robert motherwell spanish elegy

SFX: Deep, slow, haunting music (not classical), reflecting the ominous atmosphere of the painting

NARRATOR:

The seeds of this painting were sewn when Robert Motherwell agreed to illustrate a friend’s poem.

ROBERT MOTHERWELL:

So I began to think not only about getting the brutality and aggression of his poem in some kind of abstract terms. inom really conceived something that worked beautifully in black and white.

NARRATOR (coming in over the top of Motherwell, who continues):

Later, he rediscovered his sketches for that project.

MOTHERWELL:

I thought: God, that’s a beautiful idea; I should man some paintings. One day inom realized there was something really obsessional about it; that it had taken on a life of its own; that it might indeed turn out to be possibly the main statement I would make in painting, and therefore I would like to connect this with something that reverberated in my mind.

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Motherwell created his first Elegy paintings during the winter of 1948—49. Although the Elegies soon became one of his most famous images, which he would work with for the rest of his life, at the same time that he created variations on the Elegy format he also developed a number of other signature images, including the Je t’aime paintings and a broad range of collages, in which he employed both cut and torn papers.

Installation view of Paintings and Collagesby Motherwell at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, May 1948. From left to right: The Red Skirt and Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White

1948

In May, Paintings and Collagesby Motherwell is shown at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery. It consists of nineteen works created during the previous nine months. This is Motherwell’s most focused exhibition to date. Most of the paintings are large works depicting single figures, including The Red Skirt and Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White.

1948

Samuel Kootz

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• About the Artwork
• Markings
• Provenance
• Exhibition History
• Published References
• Catalogue Raisonné
• Credit Line for Reproduction
• Audio Transcript

About the Artwork

Robert Motherwell's most acclaimed series of works is a group of more than 150 "Elegy to the Spanish Republic" paintings originally created in 1948 to accompany a poem by Harold Rosenberg titled "Elegy to the Spanish Republic I." The motif, alternating black vertical rectangles and suspended ovoid forms against a white or gray background, has had many symbolic translations, but it is meant to express the savage in the human soul. This painting was created during a dramatic revival period of the "Elegies" theme. It exemplifies Abstract Expressionist painting with its combination of primitive rawness and sophisticated elegance, and its effect of huge, spontaneous brushstrokes.

Elegy to the Spanish Republic #131

1974

Robert Motherwell