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Lot Essay
A gust of cool, salty air can almost be felt dancing across one’s skin when face to face with the encompassing deep sea blue surface of Robert Motherwell’s 1971 painting, Cape Cod. The expansive lazuline canvas stretches across the viewer’s eyeline, interrupted only in the top right corner by a jutting rectangle of warm yellow ochre, breaking the composition into two distinct spaces. This sandy-toned box is accented by graphite and charcoal markings, typical of Motherwell’s highly esteemed Open series, from which Cape Cod stemmed. Just outside of the angular interruption, a splash of vivid carnation and an assemblage of painterly brushstrokes in deep cerulean work their way into the vast sea of sky blue that surrounds them, bringing movement and fluidity onto the stagnant canvas. With brilliant color, a dynamic utilization of space, and an expertly crafted sense of locality, Cape Cod serves as a stunning example of Motherwell’s further explorations into the concepts he began in the Open series and puts on full display his talent as a colorist. Perhaps even more so than this, however, Cape Cod speaks to the deep love felt by Motherwell for his beachy respite away from the bustling art scene of New York City, highlighting the flood of inspiration and creativity this meaningful place brought him.
Motherwell first ventured into the Provincetown area of the Cape Cod peninsula in 1942 but it wasn’t until over a decade later that he was finally able to buy a quaint cottage right on the water. There he fell in love with the sprawling seascape, sitting on his cottage steps for hours on end listening to the crashing of the waves, gazing as the sunlight danced across the sparkling water, watching the shadows grow longer. The coast was an escape for Motherwell, the place he chose to rest for many summers after the busier, colder months in the city. In his time on Cape Cod, Motherwell was able to draw tremendous inspiration from the stunning scenes around him, completing countless works in the studio on the top floor of his seaside home. His daughter, Lise, recalls many mornings when he would bound down the stairs after a long night of painting, beaming and proclaiming to have created a masterpiece.
This sort of escape to the peace and serenity of a coastal town was not uncommon amongst some of the most recognizable artists of the time. Towards the end of 1945, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner moved into a house in Springs on Long Island, where Pollock would create his pioneering drip paintings and Krasner would paint some of the most seminal works of her career. Willem de Kooning would also move to a house on Long Island in 1963. There he lived the rest of his life, creating a wealth of breathtaking works, including his stunning Montauk series inspired by the scenes around him. Though the city provided an incredible artistic community, full of opportunity and innovation, the simple joy of experiencing nature and the inspiration that comes from a peaceful seaside cannot be overstated in their influence on the shape of art history. In Lise Motherwell’s words, “My father’s colorful Provincetown paintings demonstrate an openness – an especially meaningful word to him – and lightness that tell me he was happiest on the Cape” (L. Motherwell, Robert Motherwell: Beside the Sea, exh. cat. Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, 2012, pg. 17)
The airiness and freedom displayed in Motherwell’s Cape Cod express not only this love of Provincetown, but also the opportunity afforded by his acclaimed Open series. This series forms a central part of Motherwell’s oeuvre, though it came about entirely coincidentally. Having finished painting the first layer of a massive yellow canvas, Motherwell left the unfinished work to dry, forgetting about it for a while as it sat propped against a wall of his studio. While rearranging his space later on, Motherwell set a canvas from a different series against this yellow back drop and realized it made a fascinating new composition. He quickly outlined the rectangular shape in charcoal, flipped it upside-down and thus was born the first work of the Open series. Cape Cod, created four years after the first Open in 1971, plays with this now familiar composition, challenging the relationship between the linear constructions and the space of the picture plane. For Motherwell, the creation of this kind of tension in painting was essential to his work. Of his paintings he has stated, “it must have immediacy, passion or tenderness; beingness, as such, detachment, sheer presence as a modulation of the flat picture plane, true invention and search, light, an unexpected end, mainly warm earth colors and bald and white, a certain stalwartness” (R. Motherwell, quoted in Ibid, pg 16). With Cape Cod we see Motherwell reaching towards this dynamism, utilizing the key compositional elements of the Open series and allowing them to become charged with his own experiences of the coastal scene surrounding him, creating a sense of place and identity unique in the space of abstraction.
Motherwell’s cultivation of atmosphere through this abstracted work toys with notions of figuration during an increasingly anti-figurative time period. One cannot help but see the arm of the Cape Cod peninsula stretch down the canvas in rich cerulean or imagine themselves stepping foot on the rectangular ochre sandbank, yet Motherwell’s works were never meant to directly imitate the seaside in this manner. Rather, his use of color, scale, and form creates an air of locality that draws on the viewer’s experiences as well as his own, alluding to, without delving back into, representational painting. Open-ended in nature, the ideas spurred by the Open series allowed Motherwell’s reality to intertwine itself with his composition, the aura of his beloved beach town slipping its way into his work with marvelous consequence.
Motherwell first ventured into the Provincetown area of the Cape Cod peninsula in 1942 but it wasn’t until over a decade later that he was finally able to buy a quaint cottage right on the water. There he fell in love with the sprawling seascape, sitting on his cottage steps for hours on end listening to the crashing of the waves, gazing as the sunlight danced across the sparkling water, watching the shadows grow longer. The coast was an escape for Motherwell, the place he chose to rest for many summers after the busier, colder months in the city. In his time on Cape Cod, Motherwell was able to draw tremendous inspiration from the stunning scenes around him, completing countless works in the studio on the top floor of his seaside home. His daughter, Lise, recalls many mornings when he would bound down the stairs after a long night of painting, beaming and proclaiming to have created a masterpiece.
This sort of escape to the peace and serenity of a coastal town was not uncommon amongst some of the most recognizable artists of the time. Towards the end of 1945, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner moved into a house in Springs on Long Island, where Pollock would create his pioneering drip paintings and Krasner would paint some of the most seminal works of her career. Willem de Kooning would also move to a house on Long Island in 1963. There he lived the rest of his life, creating a wealth of breathtaking works, including his stunning Montauk series inspired by the scenes around him. Though the city provided an incredible artistic community, full of opportunity and innovation, the simple joy of experiencing nature and the inspiration that comes from a peaceful seaside cannot be overstated in their influence on the shape of art history. In Lise Motherwell’s words, “My father’s colorful Provincetown paintings demonstrate an openness – an especially meaningful word to him – and lightness that tell me he was happiest on the Cape” (L. Motherwell, Robert Motherwell: Beside the Sea, exh. cat. Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, 2012, pg. 17)
The airiness and freedom displayed in Motherwell’s Cape Cod express not only this love of Provincetown, but also the opportunity afforded by his acclaimed Open series. This series forms a central part of Motherwell’s oeuvre, though it came about entirely coincidentally. Having finished painting the first layer of a massive yellow canvas, Motherwell left the unfinished work to dry, forgetting about it for a while as it sat propped against a wall of his studio. While rearranging his space later on, Motherwell set a canvas from a different series against this yellow back drop and realized it made a fascinating new composition. He quickly outlined the rectangular shape in charcoal, flipped it upside-down and thus was born the first work of the Open series. Cape Cod, created four years after the first Open in 1971, plays with this now familiar composition, challenging the relationship between the linear constructions and the space of the picture plane. For Motherwell, the creation of this kind of tension in painting was essential to his work. Of his paintings he has stated, “it must have immediacy, passion or tenderness; beingness, as such, detachment, sheer presence as a modulation of the flat picture plane, true invention and search, light, an unexpected end, mainly warm earth colors and bald and white, a certain stalwartness” (R. Motherwell, quoted in Ibid, pg 16). With Cape Cod we see Motherwell reaching towards this dynamism, utilizing the key compositional elements of the Open series and allowing them to become charged with his own experiences of the coastal scene surrounding him, creating a sense of place and identity unique in the space of abstraction.
Motherwell’s cultivation of atmosphere through this abstracted work toys with notions of figuration during an increasingly anti-figurative time period. One cannot help but see the arm of the Cape Cod peninsula stretch down the canvas in rich cerulean or imagine themselves stepping foot on the rectangular ochre sandbank, yet Motherwell’s works were never meant to directly imitate the seaside in this manner. Rather, his use of color, scale, and form creates an air of locality that draws on the viewer’s experiences as well as his own, alluding to, without delving back into, representational painting. Open-ended in nature, the ideas spurred by the Open series allowed Motherwell’s reality to intertwine itself with his composition, the aura of his beloved beach town slipping its way into his work with marvelous consequence.