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Untitled (Beside the Sea)

Photo: Susan Cole

Untitled (Beside the Sea)

1962

Robert Motherwell

American, 1915-1991

Motherwell served as a vital link between avant-garde artists in Europe before the war and post-war artists in New York. Best known for expressive paintings and collages using a method of spontaneous creation called automatism, he attempted to express the mind’s inner workings. The Beside the Sea series is an exercise in spontaneity: his visceral response to the sea at high tide as it broke against the bulkhead near his Provincetown studio. In response to the force he exerted on the paper, often tearing it through, he said, “The true way to 'imitate' nature is to employ its own processes." These images exist in a plane between description and metaphor.

Oil on paper
29 x 23 in. (73.66 x 58.42 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Liberman
91.247
Photo: Susan Cole
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 to the Present, Sept. 12, 1996 - June 1, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.
Published ReferencesArnason, H.H. "Robert Motherwell." New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1977; n.p., reproduced fig. 147.

Arnason, H.H. and Dore Ashton. "Robert Motherwell." Rev. ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1982; p. 149, reproduced fig. 184.

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