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Quote by Robert Motherwell

“The problems of inventing a new language are staggering. But what else can one do if one needs to express one's feeling precisely?”

Quote by Robert Motherwell

Book:The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

Work

The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

This volume presents a wide array of Motherwell's writings, showcasing his thoughts on art, aesthetics, and the role of the artist in society. It includes his seminal essays on Abstract Expressionism and his reflections on the creative process, offering insight into his artistic philosophy and the evolution of his work. more

Author

Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell was an American painter known for his abstract expressionist works. His art often features black and white colors, filled with strong emotions and philosophical thoughts. Motherwell held a significant position in the 20th-century art world, and his works have had a profound impact on later artists. more

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“To pick up a cigarette wrapper or wine label or an old letter or the end of a carton is my way of dealing with those things that do not originate in me, in my I.”

Way Ends Materials Picks Letters Wine My Way Labels Cigarette Old Letters

Book:Robert Motherwell on paper: drawings, prints, collages

Source: Robert Motherwell on paper: drawings, prints, collages

“I never had the... common anxiety as to whether abstract painting had a given 'meaning.”

Given Common Painting Anxiety Abstract Abstract Painting

Author:Robert Motherwell

“In the end I realize that whatever meaning that picture has is the accumulated meaning of ten thousand brushstrokes, each one being decided as it was painted.”

Ends Realizing Thousand Ten Decided

Book:The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

Source: The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

“It is the medium, or the specific configuration of the medium, that we call a work of art that brings feeling into being.”

Art Feelings Mediums Works Of Art Being Me Configuration

Book:The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

Source: The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

“For a hundred years, modern painters, stubbornly and in the face of incessant hostility, have moved, step by step, leaving superb monuments by the wayside, towards an art of arrangement whose expressiveness depends less and less upon its elements imitating the objects of the external world.”

World Years Art Faces Steps Modern Objects Depends Elements Hundred Moved Leaving Painter Arrangements Hostility Monument Modernism Imitating Superb Incessant

Book:The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

Source: The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell

“I started with straight, basic, symbolic structures. My problem now is the opposite; as I get older, I try to make my paintings more contrapuntal, richer.”

Trying Problem Painting Opposites Structure Symbolic

Book:Robert Motherwell

Source: Robert Motherwell

“Sometimes images may emerge from some chord in my subconscious, the way a dream might. Even in those paintings where an image unconsciously develops, a certain kind of experience is usually necessary in order to perceive it.”

Way Kind May Sometimes Dream Might Certain Order Painting Perception Perceive Subconscious Chords

Author:Robert Motherwell

“It's possible to paint a monumental picture that's only 10 inches wide, if one has a sense of scale, which is very different from a sense of size.”

Ifs Different Power Paint Size Wide Scales Inches

Author:Robert Motherwell

“If one were to ask a painter what he felt about anything, his just response - though he seldom makes it - would be to paint it, and in painting, to find out.”

Ifs Would Be Asks Felt Painting Response Paint Painter

Author:Robert Motherwell

“An odd contradiction, if the layman were correct in his unconscious assumption that an artist begins with reality and ends with art: the converse is true - to the degree that this dichotomy has any truth - the artist begins with art, and through it arrives at reality.”

Ifs Art Ends Reality Artist Degrees Odd Assumption Unconscious Contradiction Converses Dichotomy Layman

Author:Robert Motherwell