Untitled (Beside the Sea)
1962
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