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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Collages by Robert Motherwell being prepared by the Dedalus Foundation.
"I think that one's art is one's effort to wed oneself to the universe, to unify oneself through union"
-- Robert Motherwell
One of Abstract Expressionism's founding members, Robert Motherwell created a body of work of astonishing depth and diversity over the course of five decades, ranging from drawing and painting to collage and printmaking. His work engages with a wide variety of approaches to abstraction, running the gamut from severe monochrome to intense coloration, from organic to more geometric compositions. Across this stylistic breadth, his work expresses through brushwork that he deftly combined with rigorous structure, frequently alluding to literature and politics.
Throw of the Dice #17 is a large-scale painting by Motherwell which testifies to his bold experiments with color, in part prompted by the impact of Color-Field painting in the 1960s. Motherwell spent part of his youth in California, and in these canvases he returns to memories of the region's bright colors and expansive spaces. Each of these works epitomizes a different facet of Motherwell's art.
The expressive drip marks and powerful splash of ocean blue at the center of Throw of Dice #17, 1963, evokes Motherwell's experiences in Provincetown, where, just outside his studio, "at high tide the sea in a high wind breaks against the bulkhead in a violent spray" (J. Flam, Motherwell, New York, 1991, p. 25). The title, drawn from a poem by Stphane Mallarmé, pays homage to the embrace of chance in the artistic process, which Motherwell here evokes in the composition's spontaneous feel.
"I think that one's art is one's effort to wed oneself to the universe, to unify oneself through union"
-- Robert Motherwell
One of Abstract Expressionism's founding members, Robert Motherwell created a body of work of astonishing depth and diversity over the course of five decades, ranging from drawing and painting to collage and printmaking. His work engages with a wide variety of approaches to abstraction, running the gamut from severe monochrome to intense coloration, from organic to more geometric compositions. Across this stylistic breadth, his work expresses through brushwork that he deftly combined with rigorous structure, frequently alluding to literature and politics.
Throw of the Dice #17 is a large-scale painting by Motherwell which testifies to his bold experiments with color, in part prompted by the impact of Color-Field painting in the 1960s. Motherwell spent part of his youth in California, and in these canvases he returns to memories of the region's bright colors and expansive spaces. Each of these works epitomizes a different facet of Motherwell's art.
The expressive drip marks and powerful splash of ocean blue at the center of Throw of Dice #17, 1963, evokes Motherwell's experiences in Provincetown, where, just outside his studio, "at high tide the sea in a high wind breaks against the bulkhead in a violent spray" (J. Flam, Motherwell, New York, 1991, p. 25). The title, drawn from a poem by Stphane Mallarmé, pays homage to the embrace of chance in the artistic process, which Motherwell here evokes in the composition's spontaneous feel.