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Lot Essay
In a metaphysical and ethereal composition that demonstrates an elegantly restrained range of color, Robert Motherwell’s collage with acrylic and pasted paper, Zig-Zag, embodies a harmony between abstraction and symbolism. Submerged in a plane of swirling, animate bands of Mediterranean blues, sandy beige and warm gray, a flattened, worn box of cigarillos lays squarely in the center of the work. The artist abandons figuration with thick, painterly passages framing the top and bottom of the vertically-oriented composition. While the surrounding swirls favor abstraction, the artist reminisces upon a Surrealist assemblage by hoisting the "Little Cigars" atop a surrounding atmosphere of abstract, moving forms. Calling upon a classic motif of French culture, the artist evokes the wafting waves of cigarette smoke, obscuring the canvas with an indolent haziness one might succumb to at a crowded seaside cafe.
By the 1970s, Motherwell had already experimented successfully and quite profusely with the imposition of cigarette cartons onto the canvas. The Gauloises collages of the sixties evidence his enthrallment with European culture, as well as a revitalized interest in the media of collage. “For Motherwell, the process of making collages has always been associated with directness and discovery… In the process of automatic drawing the artist discovers new forms by allowing his hand free play, calling forth images and feelings that exist below the level of consciousness. It is a way, among other things, of inviting the unexpected… Instead of engaging in the essentially interior monologue that is characteristic of most abstract painting, the artist interacts directly with the outside world, incorporating fragments of it in the picture: scraps of paper, labels, enevlopes, wrappers, tickets, sheets of music, and pages from books” (Jack Flam, Motherwell, New York, 1991, p. 16). While Motherwell experimented with collages earlier in his career, Zig-Zag symbolizes an ever-present longing for reflection and self-definition.
As an emerging artist living in New York City in the 1940s, Robert Motherwell found himself immersed amongst an influential crowd of ex-patriots who had fled from war-time Europe. It is only natural that his work would become steeped in symbols of European identity and culture. Prior to his move to the East Coast, Motherwell took an interest in French culture and poetry, studying and painting abroad. During his early years in New York, a wide circle of Surrealists, well-established by that time, encouraged the employment of automatism, assemblage and symbolism that would go on to inform his contribution to Abstract Expressionism. As one of the seminal figures of Abstract Expressionism in America, Motherwell embodies the post-war artist whose pictorial identity was so heavily shaped by the creative energy and influx of international artists in America.
By the 1970s, Motherwell had already experimented successfully and quite profusely with the imposition of cigarette cartons onto the canvas. The Gauloises collages of the sixties evidence his enthrallment with European culture, as well as a revitalized interest in the media of collage. “For Motherwell, the process of making collages has always been associated with directness and discovery… In the process of automatic drawing the artist discovers new forms by allowing his hand free play, calling forth images and feelings that exist below the level of consciousness. It is a way, among other things, of inviting the unexpected… Instead of engaging in the essentially interior monologue that is characteristic of most abstract painting, the artist interacts directly with the outside world, incorporating fragments of it in the picture: scraps of paper, labels, enevlopes, wrappers, tickets, sheets of music, and pages from books” (Jack Flam, Motherwell, New York, 1991, p. 16). While Motherwell experimented with collages earlier in his career, Zig-Zag symbolizes an ever-present longing for reflection and self-definition.
As an emerging artist living in New York City in the 1940s, Robert Motherwell found himself immersed amongst an influential crowd of ex-patriots who had fled from war-time Europe. It is only natural that his work would become steeped in symbols of European identity and culture. Prior to his move to the East Coast, Motherwell took an interest in French culture and poetry, studying and painting abroad. During his early years in New York, a wide circle of Surrealists, well-established by that time, encouraged the employment of automatism, assemblage and symbolism that would go on to inform his contribution to Abstract Expressionism. As one of the seminal figures of Abstract Expressionism in America, Motherwell embodies the post-war artist whose pictorial identity was so heavily shaped by the creative energy and influx of international artists in America.