The Writings of Robert Motherwell [Paperback]

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), one of the leading American Abstract Expressionist painters, was also a theorist and exponent of the movement. His writing articulated the intent of the New York school Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, and othersduring a period when their work was often reviled for its departure from traditional representation. As founder of the Documents of Modern Art series (later renamed the Documents of Twentieth-Century Art), Motherwell gave modern artists a voice at a time when very few people understood their theories or work. This authoritative new edition of the artist's writings about art includes public lectures, essays, and interviews. Impeccably edited, with an informative introductory essay and rigorous annotation, it is illustrated with black-and-white images that elucidate Motherwell's writings.

Dore Ashtonis Professor of Art History at the Cooper Union and author or editor of over 30 books on modern art and culture, includingNoguchi East and West, The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning, A Fable of Modern Art,andA Critical Study of Philip Guston,all from UC Press.Joan Banachworked with Robert Motherwell from 1981 to 1991. She is an artist who lives in New York.

Robert Motherwell was not just a great painter, he was a brilliant thinker. As the founding editor ofThe Documents of Twentieth-Century of Art, he decisively shaped our understanding of modernism. This new and expanded selection of Motherwell's criticism provides an essential guide to the art of the high modern period, both American and European. Pepe Karmel, author ofPicasso and the Invention of Cubism

In the past two decades Abstract Expressionism has become one of the most dynamic subjects in art history; sometimes the reading is so dense it is like swimming through peanut butter. But, cutting through to the essential questions that generated thl³›