Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
An eloquent personal exploration by a close friend, Robert Motherwell: What Art Holds is an essential addition to the literature on the artist and his work. Richly illustrated with pieces spanning his career - including twenty-one color platesthe book also includes never-before-published photographs of the artist himself.
Mary Ann Caws discusses the artist's paintings, drawings, and collages in relation to the wide variety of American and European literature and philosophy Motherwell saw as central to his art. In a progression of critical meditations, Caws looks closely at series of his works, such as In Plato's Cave and Night Music, and at such great individual pieces as Gift, her inquiry gracefully encompassing the writings of Frost, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Kierkegaard, Stevens, and Garcia Lorca.
Her reflections are grounded in an essential agreement with Motherwell that his work was a continuum: that his life and art were a matter of process, journey, and becoming, shaped by a willingness to experiment and to start over.
Always returning to the uniquely American themes of openness and possibility in the artist's work, Caws explores Motherwell's use of series, his bold color combinations representing such complex issues as solitude and death, and the idea of giving and receiving seen in his technique of collage.
The book concludes with five thoughtful interviews between Caws and Motherwell, published here for the first time, featuring discussions of the artist's relationship to surrealism, to Joseph Cornell, and to Mallarme. Infused with the special knowledge derived from a personal communion with Robert Motherwell's art, Mary Ann Caw's work will be an immeasurable source of discovery for lovers of both art and literature.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Abstract expressionism, Artists, Criticism and interpretation, Surrealism, Biography, Motherwell, robert, 1915-1991, Art criticismPeople
Robert MotherwellPlaces
United StatesShowing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Robert Motherwell: With Pen and Brush (Reaktion Books - Essays in Art and Culture)
April 3, 2004, Reaktion Books
Paperback
in English
1861891415 9781861891419
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3
Robert Motherwell: what art holds
1996, Columbia University Press
in English
0231096445 9780231096447
|
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created April 30, 2008
- 8 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
March 16, 2012 | Edited by ImportBot | import new book |
January 12, 2012 | Edited by ImportBot | import new book |
August 10, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 30, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |