Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell was by far the most intellectual and articulate of the Abstract Expressionists. This book, written by the renowned writer and critic Mary Ann Caws, a friend of the artist, examines how Motherwell's way of writing and thinking illuminated his paintings. American by birth, yet European in his literary and philosophical perspectives, he straddled two traditions. He was drawn to France and French literature, to the idea of elegy and the Spanish Civil War, to the Surrealists, yet his spirit was singularly American -- a tension that gave his oeuvre a particular intensity. Drawing on conversations with the artist as well as on his writings, "Robert Motherwell with Pen and Brush "brings his distinctive approach, unique among the Abstract Expressionists, into focus.