Robert Motherwell
Born in 1915 and died 1991
American Abstract Painter.
His school years were in CA where he found his love for spaces and colors, His later work had to do with his health as a child.
Around 1932-37 studied painting at CSFA and received a BA in philosophy from Stanford.
At Stanford he learned about modernism, symbolist and other literature.
His father wanted him to get a more secure career but he wanted to be a painter.
He went to Harvard to study philosophy.
In the 40s he moved to NYC where he went to Columbia and painted and was encouraged by Meyer Schapiro. Meyer introduced him to surrealists. During this time he was influenced a lot.
He also studied under Kurt Seligmann.
Around 1941 he met his future wife and decided to make painting his career while with Roberto Matta in Mexico. Matta helped him with the idea of Automatism or abstract automatic doodling.
He spend a lot of time developing his creative principles based on what he has learned with Matta, Wolfgang Paalen and Yves Tanguy.
In the early 40s Motherwell helped form the movement of Abstract Expressionism.
1942 he started showing his work in NYC, in 44 he had his first solo show at one of Peggy Guggenheim’s galleries.
Through out the 50’s he was a teacher at Hunter College in NY and at Black Mountain College in California.
during the 60’s he was at an art colony in Provincetown MA.
