The Dutch Hat

“The tension between life as it is lives and life as it is transformed into art has for a long time been evident in Motherwell’s work. It is this tension that underlies his concern with subject matter, and has to a large degree determined the range of color and imagery he has set for himself in the various mediums in which he works. And it is probably this tension that has impelled him to keep his almost obsessive concern with autobiographical detail—the scraps of paper, souvenirs, invitations, certificates, labels, envelopes, and wrappers that he saves—confined to the single autobiographical medium of collage.”
J. Flam, Motherwell, Rizzoli, New York, 1991, p. 27