Lot Essay
The development of Motherwell's oeuvre grew out of a constant dialogue between his works in collage and paint. From 1954-1957, he embarked upon one of his most important series of paintings, entitled Je t'aime, which, in their strong color, bold brushwork, and spatial organization, showed a notable departure from earlier works such as the Elegies. In these, and collages such as The Easels, Motherwell rejected the rigid frontality of his earlier works in favor of a more cubist structure, one which would ultimately lead to a new liberation in his paintings and collages of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The collages of this period, including Mediterranean Interior and Black Table, all possess certain defining characteristics. They are sensual in texture, with the collaged elements forming expressionistic swaths across the paper; they tend to be cubist in structure; and they contain personal references. "The Cubists' approach to collage was a very personal statement, a form of twentieth-century still life, filled with reminiscences of the studio and immediate surroundings of the artist. All this appealed to those aspects of Motherwell's personality, sensuous, romantic, sometimes idealizing or hedonistic, which had drawn him to Europe and specifically to the culture of the Mediterranean." (H.H. Arnason, Robert Motherwell, New York, 1982 [revised ed.], p. 41). They also exhibit more freedom and immediacy than do the oils, which were often reworked over a period of time. "His collages, thus, frequently reflect an airier side than his paintings, at times graceful and more colorful, more ready to swing back and forth between association and representation... and abstraction." (Ibid.)
The collages of this period, including Mediterranean Interior and Black Table, all possess certain defining characteristics. They are sensual in texture, with the collaged elements forming expressionistic swaths across the paper; they tend to be cubist in structure; and they contain personal references. "The Cubists' approach to collage was a very personal statement, a form of twentieth-century still life, filled with reminiscences of the studio and immediate surroundings of the artist. All this appealed to those aspects of Motherwell's personality, sensuous, romantic, sometimes idealizing or hedonistic, which had drawn him to Europe and specifically to the culture of the Mediterranean." (H.H. Arnason, Robert Motherwell, New York, 1982 [revised ed.], p. 41). They also exhibit more freedom and immediacy than do the oils, which were often reworked over a period of time. "His collages, thus, frequently reflect an airier side than his paintings, at times graceful and more colorful, more ready to swing back and forth between association and representation... and abstraction." (Ibid.)